Born Champion (On Hiatus)
by SpartanXHunterX
Summary: After a self-sacrifice, Dusk finds himself in a completely new universe. He learns that his job as a Spartan is far from over, he'll have to make his own way around trying to keep himself alive AND unseen, Till he wraps his hands around that damn Elites neck. It doesn't take long to be noticed and now everyone wants him, needs him or just wants his things. Rated M for violence/Gore
1. Operation: Back Blow

**What is it like to be a Spartan?... Dusk has yet to find that answer for himself, He won't find it here... not now at least. But after a self-sacrifice, he learns that his work is just starting to unfold, in a world... No, universe completely different than his own he'll have to make his own way around trying to keep himself alive AND unseen, Till he wraps his hands around that damn Elites neck and is sure that he won't get up again.**

 **It doesn't take long for the world to notice him and now everyone is reaching out to him, some want him, others need him, some just want his things, things he refuses to give up even if it means ending his own life. As his old and new life Blur together Dusk begins to question what's right and wrong, His once straight path begins to bend and split and even the Forerunners wouldn't be able to see the end of them.**

 **A/N Hey, Welcome everyone to my Fanfic** **Born Champion ,** **I'll be honest this isn't the first Fanfiction I've Written but it will be the first to be uploaded on this website so constructive criticism would be appreciated, If I make a mistake let me know and I'll fix it ASAP But on that same note NO FLAMES, Flaming me or another Viewer is not allowed and you will be Ignored. Another note is that I won't be using any update schedule and will update the story when I think the next chapter is good enough, So you'll have to wait for the chapter in your own time.**

 **Also, this is rated M because of extreme violence and detail to gore and injuries, there won't be any ships here...maybe. So if you're sensitive to gore and violence this is your warning, though it doesn't start straight away. This is also a slight AU to the Halo Storyline and lore so if any of you disagree with what I write in MY story, stop reading.**

 **I Don't own Overwatch or Halo.**

"Hey"-Speaking

" **Hey** "-Elite Speaking

 _"Hey"_ -Speaking through Comms

 _" **Hey** "-_Elite Speaking through comms

'Hey'-Thinking

' **Hey** '- Elite Thinking

* * *

October 27, 2558

Sanghelios, Urs–Fied–Joori system.

100km away from the Exosphere of Sanghelios.

The UNSC Infinity, The Largest ship In Human control, at roughly over 18,500 ft long, 2700ft wide and 3,400ft tall, the massive chunk of titanium plating sat idly in the vast void of space staring down at the large planet before her, Sanghelios the home world of the Sangheili. The Beautifully vibrant planet seemed so peaceful from so far away, It was so hard to tell that the entire planet was actually in the middle of a civil war as the Infinity stared down at her, yet with beauty came horror, it's unwanted twin, because floating within the planet's Exosphere sat the one thing that stood in the way of both peace and the Infinity's decent, A Covenant controlled CAS Carrier Named the Reconnection Of Faith.

The large Purple Ship Floated some 500km above the planet's surface acting as a barrier between space and those who wished to get into the air space below it, Cause far below that ship sat a Target that a large group wished they could take, Sunaion, a city which had been built around a forerunner guardian in homage to the deities that they once worshipped like gods. That Guardian is the only thing that would help Fireteam Osiris gain access to wherever The master Cheif had been sent to, Fireteam Osiris' mission is to find and rescue Blue team before anything bad happens to them and to bring them home safely. The biggest problem is that the Reconnection Of Faith is too close to the city of Sunaion for the Swords of Sangheilos and Osiris to engage upon the City for access to the Guardian. Luckily the crew of the Infinity has already made a plan to deal with the Carrier and rescue many prisoners at once.

The crew on the inside were already bustling around moving around one of the Hanger bays, The only protection between the ship and the void of space was the Energy shielding technology that allowed ships and cargo to go in and out yet kept the air sealed tight within the ship. Pelicans were stationed up on their platforms dormant from the lack of use, Technicians and Mechanics all moved fluidly around one another, moving parts and mechanisms around a single object, The only ones who weren't moving around where the Marines and Spartans that stood in their respective spaces, the latter more than the former. Among the Spartans was one group that would be leading the current operation to infiltrate the Reconnection Of Faith, Three of the Four Spartans were checking their weapons, ammo, and armour before heading off for their current mission.

The fourth unmoving Spartan is Dusk Greyson, an expert sniper, and the scout to Fireteam Horizon, his armour consisted of the GEN 2 MJOLNIR Scout Armor; The primary colour of which was white while the secondary colour was grey, The small slit-like visor that sat on his helmet was tinted a light blue colour. While many new recruits mistook him for the current commander of the Infinity, Sarah Palmer, there was a distinction between the two. From his current spot Spartan, Greyson had a great view of the entire hanger bay; From the rushing Mechanics and Technicians to the Huragok that lazily floated in the air that randomly assisted the Techies below it. Greyson wasn't sure if the Huragok was lazy or was trying to find a space to help with the way it floated up and down in the air, occasionally one of its tendrils would go in the middle of the group yet it didn't seem to do anything in particular.

The sound of metal pinging off the ground made Greyson lose his focus on the group as his head snapped towards the sound, a un-activated grenade bounced across the floor and rolled towards him and was about to go past him, but before it could Greyson lifted the front of his foot up and clamped the grenade between it and the floor, stopping it from causing any harm to anyone should it have gone unnoticed or activated. A much heavier clomping sound came just seconds later and Greyson lifted his head up just enough to see the perpetrator, His teammate Spartan Alton Rodgers.

Spartan Rodgers was outfitted with the DEFENDER-class Mjolnir suit of armor; both the primary and secondary colours were a murky brown, with the exception of the red streaks that crossed over the armor, the 'T' like shaped visor was tinted a gold colour, said helmet was resting peacefully upon Rodgers' Head obscuring his face. On his back sat an M45D Tactical Shotgun and on his right thigh an M20 SMG was resting waiting for use and around his waist was a Grenade belt holding three pre-placed M9 Fragmentation Grenades, The fourth slot was empty as the final grenade rested under Greyson's foot.

"Sorry about that Greyson..." As Greyson lifted his foot off the Grenade, Rodgers Knelt down and scooped it up before standing and attaching it to his belt. "... Slipped off the table." Greyson lifted his chin up quickly causing his helmet to jerk upwards in a reverse nod, his way of saying 'You're welcome'.

"You know, you should come get your gear sorted, we're leaving as soon as those lot are done." Rodgers jabbed his thumb towards the techies that were still huddled around in one area, with the Huragok floating above still choosing between helping and leaving. Rodgers didn't wait for a reply as he turned around and left for the Munitions table. Greyson looked between the techies and the table at which the rest of his team was currently surrounding, while it seemed it would be a while before they were finished, Huragok were known to perform miracles with machines.

Greyson shifted from his spot where he was leaning on the metal wall, uncrossed his arms and turned towards the munitions table with the sole intention to stock and arm up. Upon arrival, his two other team members acknowledged him with a brief nod before all four heads were turned towards the table all examining their weapons and selection of armaments. To his right was Spartan Casey Salazar, She wore the NOBLE-class Mjolnir set of armour with its primary colour being a deep blue while it's secondary colour is black, with the white stripes going around the thighs and forelegs of the armour, Salazar is the leader of Fireteam horizon. Both her helmet and M5AD Assault Rifle laid on top of the table revealing her face to anyone who looked,while her M6H2 magnum rested on her right thigh, Her blonde hair was cut short to about 2inches preventing it from getting in the way of the helmet or the helmets visor, Her milky blues eyes locked onto the assortment of weapons before her as everyone got themselves ready for the upcoming mission.

Across from him was Spartan Chelsea Dawson, she donned the TECHNICIAN-class Mjolnir armor suit, It's primary and secondary colour were both white with a few light blue streaks going around the edge of the chest piece and helmet, Like Rodgers, She wore her Helmet obscuring her face from view and leaving it behind the Red Visor. Her M395 DMR sat lodged in her hands and an M41 SPNKR rocket launcher sat on her back.

Dusk turned towards the unopened crates that sat just to his left and with a simple flick of his wrist he opened them to reveal his own weapons, firstly he pulled out his SRS99-S5 AM sniper rifle and attached it to the magnetic strips on his back, for a moment he adjusted to the familiar weight before picking up multiple extra magazines and attaching them to the mag holsters on his chest.  
Pushing the empty container onto the floor Greyson opened up the next one to reveal two items both his M6H2 Magnum and his Kukri Knife, Two items that held an Extreme amount of importance to him, while his M6H2 Magnum was not a different model than Salazar's Magnum, It did have four small scratches on the left side of the barrel in a sort of tally, few knew the significance of those marks but those who did never dared to touch the gun. Greyson attached the Magnum to his right thigh, effectively hiding the Scratch tally, attaching multiple spare magnum clips on the belt around his waist so he wouldn't fall short, though he rarely shot the gun anyway.  
He unsheathed his kukri knife, the curved blade slowly sliding out of its sheath, gliding his finger over the blade he made sure it was still sharp from the multiple times he's had to use it, satisfied with the blade, he re-sheathed it and attached the blade to his lower back with the handle pointing to his left side.  
His final weapon was an M395 DMR, which of the three weapons was most commonly used in mid-range combat, though less effective than the gun on his back it still served as a vital part of his kit, with nowhere else to put it he kept it in his hands.

"Captain on deck!"

All heads turned towards the sound of the voice, one of the marines who was stationed by the door to the hanger bay, but that didn't matter, what did matter was who had entered. Thomas Lasky, The Captain of the UNSC Infinity. Flanked just to his left was an Elite who was covered in a red Storm Harness, signalling his allegiance to the Swords Of Sanghelios, though unlike those in the Covenant, he actually had the arm guards. A Type 55 Storm rifle was latched onto his back while a Type-1 Energy sword hilt sat on the Sangheili's right thigh, on Lasky's Right was a mechanic carrying a datapad and a box, clearly from Sangheili origin, The Three seemed to be having a conversation about something as the three of them moved throughout the hanger bay narrowly avoiding obstacles and other people as they moved out of the way. For a few moments, he didn't seem too concerned about where he was going, until his eyes locked onto Fireteam Horizon.

"Horizon." The four mentioned members stood up tall, as opposed to slouching over a table and each Spartan saluted towards the Captain. Lasky Raised his hand in a 'Halt' gesture. "At ease, Spartans... You four are aware of what's going right?"

"Minimally, Sir." All the other Spartan's became a little more lax, after Salazar Spoke, Rodgers and Dawson both leant slightly on the table while Greyson and Salazar lowered their hands to either their sides or abdomen, the former doing the latter.

"Apologise about the secrecy Spartan's but I'd prefer to have the least amount of people know what's going on right now." Lasky Turned towards the Elite that accompanied him. " This is Cyre 'Temanee, He'll be accompanying you on this mission and he'll fully inform you on your task's once you four set off."

Cyre bowed his head slightly and he brought a fisted hand up to his chest. " **An honour to meet you Spartans.** " The Spartans in question repeated the gesture in kind before diverting their attention back to Captain Lasky.

"Harvey, If you wouldn't mind." The mechanic in question hummed in questioning before snapping his head up from his datapad.

"Oh right, Spartans you wouldn't mind coming forward one at a time, I've gotta get one final look at your armour systems before you go, make sure you're fully prepared." Greyson being the closest stepped forwards before standing up tall, he like many Spartans before him, towered over other humans by a fair amount but no Spartans were capable of being as tall an Elite as evident by the Elite that stood just 3ft away. "Alright Spartan, Give me a moment gotta connect up to your suit, now don't get spooked if you see numbers flash on your screen... That's to be expected." Some time passed and just as he was forewarned Number, algorithms, and lines of code all ran smoothly across the screen, He couldn't make heads or tails of any of it but that wasn't his job.

"Ok, let's see here... Hydrostatic gel is good, Pressure seal is nice and tight, ah... Biofoam injectors are working, Force-multiplying circuits and Reactive circuits are responding..." As Harvey continued his hands poked and prodded the Datapad whilst all the information kept moving around the helmet Visor. "... Lockdown system is enabled... Thermal and Motion sensors are operational, imaging and video gear operational... Rebreathers are operational, Equipment identification sensors are operational... Environmental control unit's doing its job... Energy shielding system is up and running at maximum efficiency... uh, Integrated thruster system... is all good" Harvey typed a few more things on his datapad before looking up. "Ok Spartan hold out your left arm, gotta check one more thing." Greyson did as he was instructed, not long after the blue hue of the Artemis Tracking System lighted up the area coaxing it in a shade of blue. "Alright... that looks good, uh... ok, just gonna give it a quick calibration." The blue hue disappeared as the holographic screen of the ATS closed down. "Aright... now the hard part." Dusk, Turned his head towards Harvey letting the man know he was listening and paying attention. "oh... uh... Captain Lasky has requested that I install something in your armour Greyson... you're to field test these and give your report once you come back... understood?"

"Understood." Greyson's voice filled the brief moment of silence, cause the mechanic to flinch to the roughness of his voice, It sounded like nails against a chalkboard, A reminder to many why Greyson didn't talk unless necessary or he had something really important to say. He retracted his left arm and Harvey grabbed his right arm whilst pulling a high powered drill towards it.

"This should just take a moment Spartan... Actually, could you put your arm on the table, It'll help stabilise it." He rolled his eye's from being his visor, did people really think Spartans were Stupid... or lacking common knowledge. Still, he complied without complaint and put his arm back onto the munitions table, A moment later the drill was going to work at removing his left gauntlet, He'd zoned out during the entire thing, using the moment to clear his head and keep his thoughts straight before they run amok. He was only aware that everything had finished when Harvey started talking again.

"Alright, that should do it..." He was currently looking down at his datapad scrolling through numbers and code before looking up "...and your ATS seems to be working great, you should have no problems using it, your done Spartan." Harvey began to disconnect the datapad causing his suit's HUD to re-boot itself. Greyson, on the other hand, started flexing his right wrist feeling no difference from before, it didn't look different.

"What'd you do?" Harvey looked up, an eyebrow raised as he processed the question.

"Oh, um... I'm not sure Spartan... I was told to install it, not what it does... you'll have to ask the Captain... Go on off you go... they've got the second part of the thing you need to field test." Giving a nod he retracted his arm before twisting and stretching it to be sure he was comfortable with the sudden shifting of wearing, to not wearing and re-acquiring his gauntlet. His HUD had also finished re-booting showing his shield level's, ammo count, crosshair and a few symbols down the side of the visor, one showing a figure leaning forward with lines behind it, the symbol for his Spartan charge and another with a figure with its fist on the 'floor' symbolising his ground pound ability... both were powerful but really didn't suit his fighting style.

Shaking his head he dispelled those thoughts for the moment before scanning the room and seeing Lasky and Cyre talking near the steps that lead down to the landing station. Making his way over to them he did a double check on his gear, Guns, ammo, Knife... yep, he had everything that he could get... as of now. As he got closer to the two he began to pick up their conversation.

"... Really better work, we're risking a lot just sending Osiris to wherever Blue team is." Lasky looked out past the doors to the hanger, seeing a small glimpse of Sanghelios as he did so, Greyson couldn't tell what he was thinking nor could he see the Captain's whole face to get a read of his emotions.

" **We've been planning this for weeks... It'll work, have faith Shipmaster.** " Cyre's mandibles twitched and moved as he spoke clearly a little agitated about the waiting. His head turned towards Greyson the moment he saw him. " **Glade you joined us Spartan**." Cyre brought his fisted hand back up to his chest again repeating the gesture from earlier. " **It is an honour to meet the 'Chattinai** **Hunter personally, you are spoken off quite highly back on Sanghelios**."

He repeated the gesture in kind as he kept walking closer to the duo. "Please, the honour is mine... to fight alongside the Swords is something all wish to do."

Lasky paused for a moment, a little more than surprised that the grizzled Spartan had talked outside of the battlefield. However, he quickly pushed those thoughts away and decided to get down to business. "Speaking of Swords." Lasky turned towards Cyre and gave a curt nod before crossing his arms behind his back, while Cyre grabbed a smooth purple box from behind him and holding it out in front of him. "A gift Spartan... from Thel 'Vadam."

Greyson stopped in his tracks just a few feet away from the two of them, he looked between the box, Captain Lasky, and Cyre, as evident by his helmet turning between the three. He raised his hand, pointing at the box, while his head tilted to the side giving off the impression of confusion. All the while Cyre opened the box to reveal what was inside, a handle to a type 1 Energy sword, though it seemed to be more fitted for a human hand as opposed to a Sangheili one, as evident by the four rubbery grooves where someone would hold one as opposed to two dips in the metal for an Elites hand. There were carvings along the edges of the metal but the way they were positioned made it hard for him to read it.

Cyre pushed the box forward putting it into Greyson's hands and with a twitch of his mandibles he spoke. " **It is yours, Hunter, a gift from the Arbiter and the Swords of Sangheilios... for all you have done**." Greyson looked between both the 'Gift' and Cyre a little more than skeptical about being given something... and from the Arbiter no less, Slowly he brought his right hand up to the box and towards the piece of metal, his armored hand grazed against the soft cloth of the boxes padding before his fingers grasped it and slowly pulled it out, turning it till his hand fit in the grooves, it was surprisingly heavier than he expected yet light enough to easily swing around.

"A culmination of multiple efforts." Greyson Turned towards Lasky, who seemed to be mulling something over, A simple raspy cough brought him out of his trance before he continued. "Originally The Arbiter wanted to give you a regular Sword and hired a master Sword crafter to make it for you but... well he wanted to give you something... more you, so to speak. Anyway, the sword crafter wanted to test himself and make something that could revolutionise Plasma-based weaponry, so he began by gathering some of the best that both the Sangheili and Humans had to offer, inventors, scientists, researchers and maybe more. My point is Spartan is that that sword is better than the rest, it drains a bit slower than the rest but still a bit too fast for constant use however it charges off your Micro-fusion pack. That's what Harvey was doing, he was linking those two together." The three of them looked towards the rest of the Spartans and the mechanic, Salazar was having her armour checked whilst Rodgers was stretching a bit, Dawson seemed completely calm... from what they could tell.

" **Treat it with respect Spartan and it will keep you alive**." Greyson could only nod in agreement, he'd seen many Sangheili survive some of the most dangerous fights by using their swords correctly and Spartans were no different. " **The marking on the ends are Sangheili markings, they read, ' _By the blood of my Enemies and the fury in my veins all who oppose this weapon will fall to my might.'_... and if you are wondering Spartan, It's called KinSlayer**."

Greyson looked at the metal handle of his new weapon, impressed by what he had been told yet confused as to why they'd bothered, chances were he wasn't going to use it, he was a sniper after all it was his job to call out threats, pick off stragglers and those going for flanks on his team and he already had his Kukri Knife for close combat but he wasn't going to turn these away, everyone would kill to get a gift from the Arbiter or the swords of Sangheilios in general. He lowered it before attaching it to the back of his right hip for easy access and placed the box onto a close by container, with his hands-free he pulled his DMR from the floor, where he'd unceremoniously dropped it when the box was forced into his hands. "It's impressive."

"Captain." All three of them turned around to see Salazar Standing behind them Rifle in hand and her helmet on her head, Rodgers and Dawson flanked her left and right respectively each had their weapons in hand. Greyson wasn't too sure how long they had been there or what they had heard but as of right now that didn't matter, they weren't the type to gossip and spread rumours.

Lasky was about to say something before the low hum of an engine coursed through the air, everyone within the hanger bay turned towards the noise. The noise belonged to a type-56 Lich that had entered through the energy barrier, it's red hull colouring showed it's connection to the Swords of Sangheilios, People evacuated one of the larger landing pads as it began to slowly descend onto said landing pad. Once it had fully docked the side doors began to open slowly, revealing three Sangheili who all donned the Red Strom Harnesses that the Swords were known for. The older, more experienced, Marines and ODST troopers all twitched at the sight of them, their old habits from before the event of the Great Schism kicking in, yet no-one made a move.

"Your rides here Spartan's, Cyre..." Both Lasky and Cyre looked towards each other for a moment before Lasky held out his hand. "... They're under your command now, good luck."

Accepting the gesture Cyre wrapped his hand around Lasky's before shaking it. " **You too, Shipmaster...** **Come,** **Spartans we have much to discuss and very little time**." The group of Six all moved in Sync towards the Lich with Lasky and Cyre taking the lead, Salazar behind them, Flanked by Rodgers and Dawson and Greyson being in the back.

"Spartans, there's one more thing you need to know... after this mission you won't be returning to the Infinity... She's been recalled to Earth to assist in her defence, Lord Hood fears that something bad is going to happen so we have to leave once Osiris has made off with the Guardian, you'll be sent down to Sangheilios to assist with clean up and defence ops under the Arbiters command, Understood?"

"Understood sir, anything else?" As Salazar talked the sounds of heavy steps echoed to the groups right, causing the Spartans to look over, It was a Cargo walker that was slowly dragging something behind it... that something being what the Mechanics, Technicians, and Huragok were all working on earlier.

"Don't break that." Lasky Jabbed his thumb at the Cargo Walkers current cargo load causing the piolet to pause for a moment before continuing it's journey, as it neared the Lich, it turned and picked up its cargo before carefully placing it inside said Vehicle, The onboard crew of Elites and Grunts working to move it deeper into the ship. It was Rodgers who broke the silence between the Spartans.

"You've gotta be kidding me."

* * *

Greyson was casually leaning against the wall of the lich next to the, currently closed, side doors listening to the low hum of the lich's engines, it was oddly calming to the war-hardened Super soldier but he didn't let it distract him, he was still on edge, his DMR lodged tightly in his hands and his eyes flickered towards the sources of any unexpected noises, He'd occasionally eye one of the Grunts that would waddle past his position seemingly bored from the lack of things to do.

Shortly after they'd left to Infinity the lich had moved closer towards Sangheilios' Mesosphere, some few hundred feet below the Reconnection Of Faith, before changing direction and heading towards it completely in its sights. Course, Cyre had explained to them about the mission and the set up of it all, For weeks the Reconnection of Faith had been causing problems for the Swords of Sangheilios and so they made a solution, to have fake double-crossers within the Swords of Sangheilos that would 'feed' important information to the ship, The sold information would usually result in the covenant attacking a lowly defended Swords camp, who were well aware what was going on, the attack would 'force' them to retreat as they 'lost' that outpost sometimes they'd lose people but all of them agreed to those risk's long before the plan was put in place then a few days later the Swords would 'retaliate' reclaiming their lost outpost before fortifying it more... and while the Sangheili were very disapproving of using trickery and deception none of them would dare to give up on what they had accomplished. The Shipmaster of the Reconnection, an Elite named Vuko, had just about been angered by the failures of the teams he sent to defend the Sites and had near enough blamed his 'Inside source' for their failures, however, he couldn't resist the current 'offer' done by them.

Vuko was to be given Multiple crates of UNSC and Sangheili weapons and Technology, which explained the vast number of UNSC crates that had been loaded into the Lich, they were to back up the claim of giving tech. While the Crew of the Reconnection had no desire for the weapons, Vuko and Cyre had come up with the plan to 'Bait' the UNSC into a tight cavern somewhere on Sangheilios or another planet to retrieve the stolen Tech before the team, of what they assumed to be Spartans, would be killed forcing the UNSC to send more soldiers there until they retrieved the tech or stopped trying to obtain it all together. To them, it was a lure tactic, to the Swords and UNSC it was what they needed to smuggle their current payload onto the Reconnection Of Faith... A modified Shaw-Fujikawa Translight engine, Otherwise known as an FTL Drive. The crates of UNSC weapons and ammo would then be taken down to Sangheilios so Horizon could effectively assist the Arbiter.

The actual plan was to use the illusion of smuggling weapons and tech to actually smuggle the FTL Drive, which had been changed into a slip space bomb, onto the ship before clearing out and blocking off multiple hanger bays around the CAS Class Carrier to prevent as many troops from escaping, the slip space Bombs timer would go off minutes after they left the ship, tearing the middle of it out and sending it who knows where. But the team of Spartans and Elites had another mission, Vuko's crew had been kidnapping civilians from both Sangheili and human worlds, more from the former as opposed to the later, so it was also their job to rescue them and bring them down to Sangheilios where they would be looked after till the Infinity or another designated ship would collect them and return them home.

Everyone aboard the Lich was nervous and a little on edge, what with carrying a Bomb that could tear open a slip space portal at the touch of a button, needless to say, Cyre had Rodgers and Salazar guard it to be sure no Unggoy would mess with it, which dampened their moods considerably but they complied no less. The steps of armoured feet approached and Greyson looked to his side to be greeted by one of the Sangheili that was also taking part in this mission, He had a very noticeable scar on his left upper thigh where the armour was split open leaving the skin exposed yet his energy shielding seemed to work just fine.

" **Zealot Cyre** **is in need of your attention... Hunter**." Giving a curt nod Greyson removed himself from his spot and walked down the narrow hallway of the Lich, passing the Slipspace Bomb and noting how Rodgers and Salazar were replaced by two Elites, no doubt they had been told first and the Elites were there to stop any curious Unggoy from tinkering with the bomb. He made his way up the sloped ramp and up onto the second floor of the Lich before being silently gestured into the control room by another Sangheili, where Cyre and the rest of team Horizon were waiting for him.

The four of them looked towards him for a moment before the Spartans looked towards Cyre, who turned to look out the front of the Lich and at the rapidly approaching hanger bay of the Reconnection Of Faith. " **It is almost time Spartans, we are already on borrowed time, as soon as we dock I will disembark the Lich and others will move some of the Crates... to stop them from being suspicious**."

" **When I shout, 'Bring the rest' you four will emerge from your hiding places, which will be by the sides of the doors... from there we'll take the hanger and continue our mission as discussed... Understood Spartans?** " Horizon all shuffled in their spots, Minus Greyson, They'd already been told this earlier but hearing it again put a little bit of pressure onto them, for now, Cyre sounded much sterner than earlier... maybe it was the fact that their plan would soon be put in place or that they were about to board a fully Covenant controlled CAS Class Carrier.

"We'll get it done Cyre, Count on it."

" **I already am counting on you Spartans, but we must move quickly if we are to succeed in time, for the Spartans on the surface have already located the Constructor, and Halsey is already working on it... they're close to needing access to Sunaion** **and her guardian**." The four Spartans gripped their weapons tight in their hands, Rodgers and Salazar pulled their respective weapons off their back in a silent gesture that they were ready.

 **...**

Greyson pressed his back tightly against the hard metal of the lich, Salazar was on his left, a little further from the door, his SRS99-S5 AM sniper rifle was clenched tightly in his hands, with his DMR on his back, as he waited for everything to play out. Dawson and Rodgers were on the other side of the door, the former closer to the door than the latter. The Lich was currently docking the Reconnection Of Faith, as evident by the Unggoy moving some UNSC and Sangheili crates closer to the side doors. A bit further in the Lich, a few other Sangheili and Unggoy were preparing themselves for the upcoming fight by checking their weapons and armour, however, Cyre was calmly standing in the middle of the space between the Spartans, ready to leave as soon as the Lich landed.

A small feeling of vertigo kicked in as the Lich slowly descended onto its landing pad and shortly after the low hum of the engine faded ever so slightly, signalling that they were seconds away from being aboard the Faith. Slowly the side bay doors opened and the fluorescent purple light's of the ship presented themselves onto the floor of the Lich and once the Bay doors hit the ground of the Faith, Cyre began to slowly walk out of the Lich and onto the Faith and out of the Spartans sights.

There was an uneasy silence that followed as all four Spartans kept themselves as still as possible, Both the Covenant and Sword Sangheili's were incredibly quiet and only the light steps of the Unggoy and Cyre's footsteps echoed throughout the ship. The Swords who were all waiting further within the Lich tensed and gripped their weapons tighter, while the Grunts slowly brought two containers, One UNSC and one Covenant, down the rampart and into the ship.

It was Cyre who broke the uneasy silence. " **The tech... as promised**."

The Spartans listened in as Cyre seemed to communicate with someone else. " **Everything that was discussed is here?** "

" **Most... We had difficulty obtaining some of the higher Tech human weapons, so we don't have it but what we do have should be enough to draw the demons in**."

Horizon listened in as the sound of guns were lowered and holstered, no doubt the Covenant were antsy about bringing Swords of Sangheilios aboard their ship, Greyson was just surprised they got this far without everything going to hell. They watched as the Unngoy continued to move back and forth between the two ships, moving different crates around but being deliberately slow about it... well slower than usual at least.

" **The list... Cyre.** "

" **Weapons, ammo, medicine, explosives... Information** " While they did have most of those things none of it was meant for the Covenant " **So what happens now**?"

" **Shipmaster Vuko, will not discuss those with anyone... he has been waiting for you**."

From the sounds alone, Cyre stepped closer to whoever he was talking too. " **I see... Bring the rest**."

Greyson was the first to swing into action, he dived from his spot on the wall, rolled against the floor and landed in a kneel position and aimed his Rifle up high towards the upper walkways that were around the edge of the large hanger bay, below Cyre pulled out his energy sword and dug it deeply into the opposing Sangheili's abdomen, to Greyson's left, Dawson had turned the corner with her SPNKR rocket launcher in her hands and Rodgers had one of his Grenades primed in his hand ready to throw it into the large crowd of the Covenant soldiers. Greyson fired off one shot towards one of the Kig-Yar Snipers, landing a headshot and causing it's bright Purple blood to splat on the wall, and Unggoy, behind it. Cyre and the allying Grunts below all dived behind the few containers that had been brought down, it was now that the Covenant forces had realised what was happening and they began to fire back towards the Demons on the Lich and Cyre.

Once sure Cyre wasn't in harm's way Dawson fired her Rocket launcher into the mass collection of Sangheili and Unggoy who had been the 'Welcoming Comity' for the Lich. Few saw it coming, Fewer managed to react to it in time, the M19 rocket hit the middle of the group and within milliseconds it exploded. The few grunts that were right where the rocket landed were blown to pieces and their light-blue blood was scattered throughout the bay and coaxed a few of the further away troops, some Sangheili meet the same fate with their indigo-colored blood spraying off in every direction from the blast. What remained of the once large group was quickly gunned down by Cyre, Salazar, and the few ally Grunts while Rodgers chucked his primed Grenade further throughout the bay, landing in a highly crowded area of Kig-Yar and Grunts. The Swords who were all waiting within the Lich charged out after the second explosion went off and assisted with clearing out the hanger bay as quickly as possible, Horizon, minus Greyson, all descended down the ramp and onto the floor of the Faith, while Greyson kept firing at any who still thought it was a good idea to stay on higher ground. Within minutes the entire bay had been cleared of Covenant forces but it wouldn't be long before more showed up.

" **We Must hurry, we do not have much time...** " Cyre paced through the hanger as he returned to the Lich. "... **I will stay and guard the bomb, go... we must hurry.** "

"Alright you heard him Spartans: Dawson, Rodgers assist in dealing with the other hanger bays, we need as few Covenant to escape as possible, Greyson go rescue those civilians... and don't run off." Greyson didn't respond to Salazar's last comment, he slid down the ramp before quickly jogging over to the rescue group, swapping out his Sniper for his DMR he gave one nod to confirm that he was ready. The temporary, team he was assigned consisted of three Sangheili and five Unggoy, one quick glance over to Dawson and Rodgers showed that they had two Sangheili but eight Unggoy, the Spartans were hurriedly packing cans of C-7 foaming spray into packs and onto their armour for quick access. Salazar, Cyre and at least half a Dozen other Elites had decided to stay behind to move and guard the slip space bomb.

" **Come, hunter, we must go** " Turning towards the group, Greyson trailed ever so slightly behind them as they left the hanger bay and into the hallways and corridors of the Carrier, he was willing to let them lead them to the holding cells, considering they knew the layouts of these ships better than him.

 _"I'll never get over that 'Title' of yours Greyson."_ His only response to Rodgers was a lowly audible and rough 'Hmtp', causing a few of the Unggoy to jump in there places, having been reminded that a 'demon' was right behind them. The group of nine all passed through empty corridors and hallways for what seemed like minutes, each room they passed they checked to ensure no-one hid in them in an attempt sneak up on them from behind, yet no rooms yielded results. The larger rooms they encountered also seemed deserted and empty showing no signs that anyone was even around.

"Where are bad guys?" A few eyes turned towards one of the grunts who had spoken. "There need to be loads, more bad guys for big ship, small crew can't work big ship." The Sangheili hummed in response, clearly agreeing with the Grunts statement, while it took a moderately sized crew to work all the navigation controls of a ship of this magnitude it took a much larger force to keep it protected and to man some of the outer defences like the Pulse laser turrets.

" **Keep your eyes open... we are not alone.** " Their trip still went uneventfully as they progressed deeper into the ship, the silence sent all of them into a very cautious state, the grunts who turn towards any noise and claim to see things that weren't there, The Elites were becoming a little more violent with room checks, going so far as to kick some doors open yet, like before, they yielded no results. For a moment they stopped and listened, while Greyson kept an eye on his motion tracker, In front of them was the opening to one of the gravity lifts but also acted as a heavily populated walkway to get all around the ship... yet it was barren.

" _Horizon We've got negative contact, status update."_ The group all moved closer to the gravity lift, they kept a close eye on the, currently closed, doors which all lead to other sections of the ship, but the holding cells were in the lower section of the ship, Greyson watched as one of the Sangheili descended down the lift, to be shortly followed by the Unggoy.

" _Positive contact Greyson, covie's are streaming in from everywhere, if it's quiet I'd use this moment to get the Civ's._ " The last Sangheili went through the Grav-lift and Greyson slowly put himself into it and Descended further down the ship. The light sounds of gunfire came through the comms, indicating Salazar's statement to be true.

" _Positive contacts here too Salazar were having trouble rigging the bay with C-7 AND keeping everyone alive, we've already lost most of the grunts and one of them has covered themselves with C-7 Foam._ "

The bottom of the lift was beginning to show so Greyson prepared himself for the impact. " _If you can't rig the bay then rig the doors, we're not here to destroy everything individually, just stop them from leaving._ "

" _Understood, see you back at the Lich in ten_?"

Greyson didn't respond as he landed on the lower level of the carrier, the others were patiently waiting for him. "The fightings back at the Hangers, we move quickly and we'll be in and out without fighting." Giving a curt nod the Sangheili turned and jogged down the hallway, a little more reckless than usual, with Greyson just behind them, the Unggoy had been left behind slightly and Greyson knew they were following by his motion tracker alone. They'd come to a large opening within the ship, large walkways sat around the edge of the large space, if you looked over the edge you'd see that the other 'floors' were just walkways under the current one they were on. The empty Space seemed to reach all the way down to the ships hull, though Greyson wasn't sure exactly where they were. "Split up, half go left the rest go right, release anyone trapped... shoot anyone who's not a prisoner or Sword, we're running out of time."

" **Yes, Hunter.** " Greyson, with one of the Elites, ran off to the left side of the prison, the Elite jumped into the first room to look for prisoners and Greyson took the second to save time. The rest of the Elites went to the right side and copied their action of one person per room, the Grunts had just caught up and decided to guard the entrance to the prison.

The room was empty save for the one Sangheili Sword in the last cell. "Sword... where are the others?" Greyson brought up his ATS, and began to hack into the cells door control, The Sangheili stood from his spot on the floor and from the looks of it, he must have been sitting there for a while. After a moment of decrypting the, somewhat pathetic, security system the doors opened up and the Sword stepped out.

" **On the lower floors... I'm surprised to see you here Spartan.** " He moved over towards one of the weapon racks and picked up a storm rifle. " **I owe you my life, Spartan, What is the plan?** " The two paced out of the room as time dwindled down further.

"Rescue everyone, Plant a bomb, leave, and then reduced this ship to slag..." As they turned the other Elite in the next room entered the walkway. "... They're downstairs, and you don't owe me anything... just help complete the mission."

The three vaulted over the rail guard that oversaw the ramp that leads below, before doing an 180 and pacing onto the walkway, deciding to save time Greyson ran over to the furthest away cell room, with his DMR in hand he approached it, as the door split off into three parts and glided into the door frame he stuck the barrel of the gun into the opening as soon as he could. Once the door was fully open he stepped in pointing the gun around the room rapidly in case of any guards, once his mind processed that there were none, he lowered his gun to his hip before looking into the cells. They were filled to the brim with prisoners of both Sangheili and human with the occasional Grunt, he counted a minimum of thirty within the one room. The near silent sounds of distraught cause him to move faster and with more vigor in his steps, once outside the furthest away cell he leaned his DMR Rifle against the cell as he brought up his ATS again, as it went to work decrypting the cells code, he looked into the cell to take note of any injuries that needed tending to, this cell held four Sangheili Civilians, as evident by the cloth they wore as opposed to armor of fighters and one human family, parents and a 14 year old girl. The father must have worked for the UNSC or ONI in some way as evident by the dog tags that hung from his neck, the T-Shirt he did have was torn to near shreds scars along his body showed evidence of a struggle... probably a Kig-Yar trying to get an easy meal.

"I'm getting you all out of here, hold on." He went back to work shifting through everything on the ATS before movement within the cell brought his attention back up, the little girl, whose once white dress was now dirty and torn in places, held her finger up as if pointing at something, her entire arm shook and the look on her face showed fear, her eyes were not focused on him but something behind him. Within split seconds his eyes darted to his motion tracker seeing the large red dot right behind the marking in the middle that indicated everything in orientation to himself, his hands dropped down, disabling the ATS, he gripped his M6H2 Magnum before ducking forwards, the sound of the air being sliced echoed above him and he swung around to his left bringing the gun up in his right as quickly as possible, The superheated plasma of the Energy Sword sliced through the metal bars of the cell as its wielder missed its target. As he finished his swing the Swords wielder brought their left hand towards his right and smacked the gun out of his hand. Greyson used his suit's thrusters to push himself to his own left and out of the way of the returning blade, as he slowed down he knelt and rolled before looking up at his attacker, A Covenant Major with the blue Storm armour.

" _Horizon, This is commander palmar... status update._ " Greyson tuned out the voice as he focused on the fight, he rolled to the left as soon as the Elite charged at him, effectively dodging the blade as it was forced into the metal floor below where he once was.

" _Bomb is in place and primed, Commander._ " Greyson leapt forwards and rolled again, landing close to where he stood just moments ago, he stood up and turned towards the Elite with both hands up, now that he was standing upright and facing his target he could fight effectively, behind him there was about 3 metres of space to move so he had little room for error right now.

" _Bays are loaded and rigged if anyone even thinks about leaving their toast._ " The Elite yanked his sword out of the ground and swung it behind him in one action, having expected Greyson to attack him then. Greyson pulled his Kukri Knife out of its sheath, the metal gave off a rough grinding sound at it did so, the 45cm long curved blade pointed to his elbow, as the handle was held backwards him his hand. To any normal human, a Kukri Knife would have acted similarly to a machete but to a Spartan, it worked like a knife, due to their increased height.

" _Good job Rodgers_ , _What about the Civie's?_ " Greyson charged forwards as soon as the Elite had gained his footing, throwing him off guard, at the last second Greyson ducked down and rammed into the Elites abdomen knocking the wind out of it and sending the two of them onto the floor, with him sitting on its abdomen. He attempted to quickly jam his knife into its neck but the Elite reacted quicker and brought its right hand up and held his wrist in place, the edge of the blade mere centimetres away from its skin.

" _Greyson Report._ " He placed his right hand on the edge of the handle and tried to push it down with his strength and weight, his eyes shifted between the knife, the Elites hand and its face, The Elite seemed... Ecstatic, crazy even with the look that was in its eyes. Greyson's eyes wandered to the Elite's unchecked hand... which had the Energy sword in it. As it tried to slash at him, he rolled over to his right, while using his legs to bring the Elites mass with him, the plasma weapon clashed with the ground next to his head scorching the metal a horrid black.

" _Greyson?_ " He threw the Elite off him and into the metal bars of the closest cell, the prisoners within jumped at the sound and impact upon their cage and moved back from it in fear of getting hurt. Greyson rolled to the left and quickly landed in a start sprint position. The Elites sword had been disabled during the impact leaving him both defenceless and alive, had it been left activated it would have gutted itself after landing unceremonially on the floor.

" _Rodgers, get down to the prison, find Greyson... now!_ " In a flash he moved forward with the kukri gripped tightly in his hand, he began to bring it down to embed the knife within the Sangheili's neck... or he would have if the warrior didn't grab his wrist and use his own momentum to throw him into the cell bars as he had done to it. Greyson dropped his knife on impact with the bars, unfortunately, it fell through the gap and into the cage with the prisoners. He felt a hard kick in his abdomen sending him back into the bars of the cell opposite the one he had just collided with. The Covenant warrior had already stood in that time and was mid-lunge for a strike by the time he regained his senses. His hand gripped the cell bars as his entire body moved on its own, his arm curled as he pulled himself to his right and pulled his body as far from its previous spot. The sword carved through the bars with ease nearly slicing open the cell and almost released the prisoners.

" _Spartan Greyson, This is Commander Palmer, what is your Status?_ " He reacted on instinct and swung his right hand outwards in a backhand motion connecting with the Elites head, forcing it to stumble and back away in the process. The Elites stumbling had caused it to turn his back to him and drop his weapon, he reached up and grasped the Sangheili's shoulders causing it to drop to its knees, he brought his hands forward and grabbed around the mandibles and the back of the head while his foot was placed on the back of one of the Sangheili's leg. The Elite attempted to stop him by grabbing his wrists but Greyson quickly twisted its neck snapping it instantly, causing multiple cracks and pops to echo around the now silent room.

" _Greyson... report_." He dusted off his hands like nothing had ever happened before retrieving his Magnum, which had been thrown across the room when the Elite had knocked it our of his hand. His knife was still stuck in the cell next to the dead Covenant warrior, he began to quickly pull the body out of the room so the prisoners didn't have to see it any more than they had.

" _I'm good commander, had to deal with something, found most of the prisoners, I'll bring them to the hanger ASAP._ " He roughly shoved the body over the edge of the walkway sending it down to the pit below them before heading back into the room to release the cells and begin to move the prisoners out of the carrier.

" _Gave us a scare there Greyson, alright get everyone out of their as soon as, I'm checking in to inform you that we're mobilising for Sunaion and we'll be there within the hour. Arbiter needs that ship dealt with in order to have air superiority over the Covenant."_ That caused him to move faster, if Osiris and the Arbiter were already moving out, then they no longer had time, they needed to be done ages ago. He jogged back over to the far end cell and began to re-hack the prison cells, receiving different looks from the prisoners; Appreciation, Surprise, Fear, but he ignored them this wasn't the time to explain why they shouldn't fear him.

" _Rodgers, get to the gravity lift and guard it before the Prisoners begin coming up... can't leave them alone for a moment."_ As the cell doors opened he picked his DMR up from where he had left it, turning for the door before everyone began to file out of their cells. On his way out he retrieved his knife from one of the Grunts who had picked it up for him, Sheathing it he turned towards everyone doing a quick head count, there were 37 prisoners in total in this one room, which was weird. While the covenant didn't care for giving luxury to those they deemed heretics and betrayers even they wouldn't overpopulate a cell... as far as Greyson knew anyway.

The large group left the room in a half cluster and half organised group, meeting up with the others on the top level where they had less success with finding prisoners. The two groups looked at each other for a moment before silently making their way down the hallway towards the gravity lift, everyone watched as two of the swords of Sangheilios went up to secure the top of the lift where, hopefully, Rodgers was already. Slowly the Sangheili went up the lift one by one without hesitation not wanting to be on the ship any longer than necessary when it came to the few humans, who had been taken from their homes and the battlefield from wherever 'Madams covenant had attacked, they seemed much less willing than the rest. Greyson couldn't help but tell they were a bit Malnourished and certainly in no form to fight or have unnecessary stress placed on them, He motioned towards the lift with one of his hands a silent message that they were to go through it. They didn't argue with the 8ft6 armoured behemoth of a human and slowly went in one by one, tensing when they entered and a few panicked as they were slowly lifted up the lift by the gravity propulsions. When it came to the only child he interfered, only to offer assistance.

He made sure the mother kept a strong hold of her child. "Hold on tight to your mother now kid, you might get a little dizzy from this." The child nodded fearfully as she tightly gripped around her mother's shoulders, who was holder her in her arms. "Good girl." He guided them both towards the lift and slowly pushed them into it, watching as they rose to the upper levels. Half a dozen more humans and two Swords of Sangheilios later and he was alone on the prison floor with nothing more than the hum of power and bright purple walls surrounding him. Doing a double check of his weapons he was satisfied that he had everything and hadn't spent any more than bullets after the initial fight, he got back into the Gravity lift letting it ascend him upwards so he could get back to the Lich in a short time and be done with this ship.

Once up the top, he took a note of the rushed line of Civilians that were being guided by the Sangheili down the hallway, no doubt they were trying to rush to the Lich as quickly as possible but with extreme caution for their safety. He caught up in a matter of seconds, taking guard of the rear of the group and keeping an eye out for anyone who would sneak up from behind them, luckily he wasn't alone as Rodgers got through the group and stood guard with him.

"Been quiet for a while Greyson, Cyre thinks most of the Faiths crew were already sent down to Sunaion before we got here, we've dealt with at least 20 dozen of them but there's still too few for the ship to be fully occupied."

"Small crew or not we're here to turn this ship to scrape by any means."

The large group continued to move down the hallway that Greyson had travelled down not 15 minutes ago a little less on edge than normal but more than he needed to be. The entire group seemed on edge from the near silence more so the humans who had to trust the Sangheili and Unggoy who travelled with them, it didn't take long for everyone to reach the hanger with the Lich, the only difference between now and when they first arrived was that the Lich was now floating above where it had been docked early, it's own gravity lift activated at its rear. The slip-space bomb had been removed from the Lich and was sitting around the middle of the Landing spot, plasma burns were up and down its metal frame, Dawson was helping the civilians up the grav-lift while also giving some support to the human ones.

Salazar motioned the two of them over to the Bomb, her posture wasn't a good one, the paint of her armour seemed scratched up if the bodies were anything to go by it seemed as though most of the Covenant had come here to deal with the soldiers guarding the Lich. Once both he and Rodgers had gotten close enough she began to talk in a slightly hushed voice. "We've got a problem, during the fray to bomb had been hit by a few stray shots, I assume it still works but... the timers busted." Looking over at the bomb she was right, the timed electroshock device had been damaged, the screen that had shown how long was left had been melted right through by a plasma shot and the wires had been melted apart, although the ends of the wires could still be put together again. if that didn't detonate the bomb on contact. "We may have to get the Infinity to blast this thing with a MAC round."

"We're here because it's too dangerous to use a MAC round on this ship, chances are she could hit the guardian below, ruining everything we've tried to achieve." As Rodgers and Salazar began to argue the pros and cons of using different weaponry to remove the Reconnection of Faith, Greyson knelt down in front of the bomb and had a closer look at the damage, the electric charge emitter was completely intact and working, as evident by the blinking light. The only problem was that the timer was broken stopping a timed detonation from happening but a manual one was still possible if someone connected the wires and pressed the 'manual detonation' button.

"I guess I'll stay here and set the thing off myself." Greyson's head snapped to his two teammates who both had stopped their arguing as Salazar said that.

"To hell with that." The two of him looked at him as he rose from his kneeling position on the floor, the slight downturn of his helmet gave off the image of anger with the way his visor was shaped. He wasn't going to let her give up her life for this, there had to be a better way... there was. Without words, he began to push the two of them towards the Lich not looking into their visors and focusing on his destination.

"Greyson what are you doing?"

"Dude, what's gotten into you?"

The group of three got to the Lift of the Lich, Much to the dismay of Rodgers and Salazar, as much as they wanted to they couldn't resist Greyson's strength, it wasn't that they couldn't overpower him, it was that they didn't want to. Greyson pushed Rodgers into the lift and watched as he went up with little resistance, deep down the two of them knew what he wanted... or in this case, what he needed to do. Just he was about to push Salazar into the lift she spoke: "You don't have to do this Greyson, Let me."

Have to? No, but he needed to, he'd had enough of people giving their lives for him or for something he could have done, it was his turn now. " _Horizon, it's Palmer, Status on the Faith._ " The two of them looked at each other through their visors his silent message going through to Salazar.

" _The bombs been damaged commander, I'm going to have to detonate it manually. The rest of Horizon and the swords will bring the Civilians down to Sangheilios momentarily._ " Greyson pushed Salazar into the lift sending her up to the Lich before turning back to the bomb and watching the Lich as it waved side to side as it began to leave the Carrier. He placed his DMR on the floor next to the bomb and waited, he needed to give the Lich enough time to escape the blast radius.

" _That's quite noble Greyson... are you sure?_ " He watched as the Lich departed from the Bay, leaving him alone on the ship. Though now that he had a moment to look around the room, there were still some crates of UNSC and Sangheili weapons and gear... there must not have been enough space for them and the Civilians. Shame it was all going to waste but that's the cost of war really.

" _I don't have a choice in this commander... it just wouldn't be fair if someone else had to do this, not when I caused this._ " He knelt down next to the bomb and began to find the needed wires to detonate it properly, despite the plasma damage everything was still distinguishable enough for him to match up the right wires.

" _What do you mean Spartan?_ " He twisted two of the wires together and watched at the manual detonation button began to flash red rhythmically.

" _I didn't kill_ Vuko _when I had the chance and because of that... I let him kill more innocent, I let my own vendetta against him consume me, I learned I was wrong in my choice when we lost him after the Requiem campaign, this isn't me sacrificing myself for the greater good, I'm atoning for my sins... commander_."

" _That's one hell of a way to say you defied direct orders Greyson but I think we can overlook it... We can't quite arrest you anyway, just to let you know, No aircraft have left the carrier so if he's up there your taking him with you."_

 _"I know commander, I know."_

...

...

" ** _Spartan, this is Cyre, we should be out of range... fire away._** " Greyson stared at the flashing red button that glowed with a want to be pushed. He waited, he wanted to give the Lich as much time as he could to ensure it was out of range of the bomb and any after-effects of firing it.

" _Audere Est Facere."_ His voiced echoed throughout every non-private communications channel in range as he slammed his fist onto the flashing red button, his vision going instantly black.

...

The crew of the Infinity watched the video footage with mixed expressions, The entire middle of the Carrier had been engulfed in a completely black void hiding anything within from view of all eyes. With no co-ordinates, control or shielding from Slip-Space chances was high that everything within the blast would be torn apart all the way down to the atomic level. Nothing would be left of that part of the Reconnection Of Faith or the Spartan who went down with it.

The Void dissipated and the remaining parts of ship drifted apart from each other without anything to hold it together, it slowly plummeted towards Sangheilios, its sides exploding and blazing even within the emptiness of space.

" _Today we lose one of our best, Crew, show some respect._ " Marines, ODST's and Spartans alike took off their helmets and saluted towards the ongoing image of the destroyed Covenant ship, many would remember this day for as long as they lived and this moment would go down in history with some of the other selfless sacrifices.

* * *

 **A/N: Just a quick little update to this chapter and in honesty I didn't change anything massively nor add anything, I just made a last minute desition and I'm having to update this chapter. Originally I was going to have Greyson speak some Latin but the translation software didn't seem entirely accurate... Curse Google translate in its sloppiness.**

 **Still, it doesn't change the story in any way, just means I can't drop secrets in the form of untranslated Latin, and if I'm being honest it will take me a few more days... maybe a week if we're lucky for the next chapter to come out, for those of you who have taken an interest in this story please be patient with me.**

 **Also If you liked this please drop a review so I can see your appreciation.**


	2. Hero's Never Die

**What is it like to be a Spartan?... Dusk has yet to find that answer for himself, He won't find it here... not now at least. But after a self-sacrifice, he learns that his work is just starting to unfold, in a world... No, universe completely different than his own he'll have to make his own way around trying to keep himself alive AND unseen, Till he wraps his hands around that damn Elites neck and is sure that he won't get up again.**

 **It doesn't take long for the world to notice him and now everyone is reaching out to him, some want him, others need him, some just want his things, things he refuses to give up even if it means ending his own life. As his old and new life Blur together Dusk begins to question what's right and wrong, His once straight path begins to bend and split and even the Forerunners wouldn't be able to see the end of them.**

 **A/N All right, back for a second chapter. I had a blast writing this second chapter, from mid writing changes to the description to the scenery I'm quite happy I took my time with this, Holy D. Va Bomb on the Payload, 2 reviews, 15 Favourites, 22 followers and 304 visitors (At the time of finishing this chapter) to the story off of the first chapter alone... I don't know what to say honestly, I expected 5, maybe 10 maximum on the Follows and Favs Combined but I was Proven wrong and I'm glad I was wrong... each and every single one of you is a little kick of motivation for me, I'm glad to have such a large group take interest in my story.**

 **Also, I'd like to Thank Shadoweye77 for giving me a little 'pep talk' and encouragement on this story, they've written some great FNAF Fan-Fics like ' The desire for family' and if you're interested go have a look at their work. If you're having trouble finding the Fic then go into your filters and change the rating to 'T' the genre's to 'Hurt/Comfort' and 'Angst', the language to 'English' and the Characters to 'Jeremy Fitzgerald' and Toy Bonnie' and it should be the only story that pops up but also pop onto their profile to see the other stories they've written.**

 **Anyway I just want to say one thing, I am in no way fluent in any language other than English so I'm stuck with using google translate for other language's so if any of you are fluent in any languages I use for the Characters and notice that I have made a Mistake please let me know the correct spelling or wording.**

 **M for violence and Gore - I Don't own Overwatch or Halo.**

"Hey"-Speaking

" **Hey** "-Elite/ Winston Speaking

 _"Hey"_ -Speaking through Comms

 _" **Hey** "-_Elite/ Winston Speaking through comms

'Hey'-Thinking

' **Hey** '- Elite/ Winston Thinking

* * *

Date: Unknown

Location: Unknown

Greyson's hand twitched as his senses returned to him, a feeling of weight was added to his body as he became aware of his surroundings and his bodily functions worked to get his immobile form to move. His eyes opened to meet the darkened room of the hanger bay, the lights that once glowed a bright purple were now dim from the lack of power leaving everything in the shadows. His helmet's visor flashed as his suits systems reset, first the visor outlined the objects that laid close to him, then the shield level bar reappeared on the top of his visor with the weapons display and movement sensors. The smaller details activated on his visor and the area around him lit up slightly as objects outlined, yet he still couldn't see much further than 1ft in front of him, his hands twitched as his mind registered the position that he had been left in. Face down on the floor of the bay, arms sprawled outwards and his legs pulled together pointing downwards... 'well there were worse ways to wake up.'

He pushed himself off the floor into a kneeling position and looked around the room, plasma flames escaped through the damaged infrastructure of the ship, displaying a blue-purple glow around the room lighting up certain areas and giving off a little light to see the extent of the damage, walkways had collapsed onto the floor and most of the docked ships had either been crushed or fallen from the ceiling where most had been left unoccupied of pilots. Scattered around the room were covenant weapons, the bodies of which who once wielded said weapons were scattered around the room in different states of damage, some were missing limbs while others were nothing but paste that clung stubbornly to the walls, floor and some on the ceiling. Plasma burns and bullet holes were littered around the remains of the room, along with the crates of UNSC and Covenant gear.

Greyson's mind ticked away as he tried to figure out where he was and how he got here.

...

...

His eyes widened behind his helmet's visor and shot up to stand on his feet, pulling his SRS99-S5 AM sniper rifle off his back and aiming it around the empty room in precaution. He had been a part of Operation: Back Blow, where he had smuggled and detonated a slip-space bomb on the Reconnection Of Faith, A Covenant ship that posed threat towards the Swords of Sangheilios and the advancement of Sunaion, a Sangheili city surrounding a forerunner guardian... but something wasn't adding up. The key word was 'had' he'd detonated the Slip-space bomb not 1ft in front of his face after the timer mechanism had been damaged during the fighting, the damn thing was sitting right next to him deactivated, now it was nothing more than a lifeless husk of metal. The bomb was supposed to send him, the surrounding ship and anything in range into slip-space where, without protection from the distorted reality, everything would be crushed to non-existence... or so it was theorised, so how was he alive? How was the ship in one piece?... or what was dragged through.

He tapped the side of his helmet, activating his inbuilt night vision, the entire room glowed in a greenish hue as every object was outlined and identified; from the dead bodies to parts of dead bodies, and every last piece of fallen infrastructure. The plasma 'fire' glowed a blinding white as the night vision activated, he lowered his weapon when he noted the lack of hostile activity. The exit to the bay, where ships used to go in and out, was blocked off by the rubble of the ships destroyed structure. Whatever laid beyond that rubble was impossible to see from here, he needed to get his bearings, find out where he is, get contact with the UNSC or UEG if possible and avoid from causing any more damage to wherever he is. Right now he had to get outside... if there even IS an outside, the constant gravity implied that he was on some sort of planet, considering the ships power was all gone or hardly functioning, so a gravity generator was out of the question.

He holstered his Sniper on his back and pulled his DMR from the floor, and made his way for the closest door that wasn't blocked, If need be, he could come back for the crates if he ever needed anything from them. As he traversed down the hallway he had to step over dead Unggoy, Kig-Yar, and Sangheili soldiers, chances of survival were already low so he'd be incredibly surprised if anyone else had survived and even then he'd just gun them down... peace was lost the moment they defected to the Covenant and not the Swords Of Sangheilios. He shook his head of those thoughts, he couldn't let himself be distracted with the semantics of the two sides, he had things to do: firstly he needed to do reconnaissance, learn where he was... that was IF he was in charted territory, and if not he had to identify the possible Sapient species and the non-Sapient species to determine if they were a threat to the UEG or humanity in general, he'd have to activate his suits location beacon but only after he's sure he's not in UEG controlled space.

Travelling down the hallway he took note of the- remaining -Infrastructure, a lot of the ships framing and armour plating had been dented, bent, torn and split, he'd be surprised if one room was fully intact. As he got to the next room he took note of the foam that littered the ceiling, walls and doorframe that went to the hallway, no doubt that Rodgers and Dawson had been here rigging this room to blow for preparation of the bomb going off, Phantoms, Banshee's and one Lich were all damaged and broken within the rubble of the ship having been dislodged and crushed during the slip-space rupture. He took slow, careful, steps around the room in case any of the covenant had survived and were planning to ambush him at some point during his trip through, The room was coaxed in shadows from where light spilled in from small gaps in the ship's hull, causing his night vision to make the room appear brighter than it was.

Bodies of the Covenant soldiers littered the floor in similar degrees of damage and desecration as those that are in the hanger bay in which he woke up in, The walkways and higher areas of the ship had crumbled and fallen down, the floor had been split and torn apart and the roof had all but collapsed in on itself. The place wasn't structurally sound and he needed out as soon as, even though some Covenant may have survived even they would leave this wreck and that would help him track them down. As luck would have it some of the covenants terminals were working, evident by the working terminal just in the next hallway, the dead Elite next to it must have been on it during the activation of the bomb. One look at the Elite warrior showed that there was a light beneath it, He knelt down and lifted the body up to get a look at the source of the light, The square screen of a DataPad greeted him as it glowed a slight purple colour.

The Sangheili language was written all over the screen, displaying messages and orders that were given prior to the attack on their ship, He looked up at the terminal then down at the Data Pad... an idea coming to mind, he quickly went to work moving all the information that remained on the ships terminals to the DataPad- with the help of his ATS -before wiping the entire system clean. He pocketed the DataPad in the pocket that sat on his left thigh, Before heading down the corridor again, there were multiple other- smaller -pockets that sat next to the larger one that held tools for him to be able to manually remove his armour... should the need arise. Removing all of the Information from the terminals was more of a safety feature than anything, it removed all information from the covenant and if some other Sapient species found the wreck they wouldn't force their technological tier to jump higher than it is... speaking of Sapient Species.

If there are Sapient species, he needs to keep as much distance between him and them, taking his time to observe them and gather as much Intelligence about them as possible: weakness', strengths, technology level and the average population of a community. If and when rescued by the UNSC he'd have to report his findings to the highest ranking officer and chances were he'd have to speak directly to HIGHCOM about the entire ordeal... god he didn't want to do that again. If forced for survival, he'd need to get contact with a Sapient species but not do or say anything that could compromise the UNSC or UEG. IF any of the covenant had survived he'd need to finish his last mission and irradicate them all to prevent other Covenant ships from arriving and claiming a possibly inhabitable or inhabited planet as their own. Though that was a little far right now.

As he walked he took note of the few flashing lights that would occasionally flicker and mess with his eyesight, up ahead he could see a faint light and with the idea of a possible opening in the wreckage he picked up his pace slightly, being cautious of potential Covenant survivors. The light combined with his night vision caused the further part of the hallway to appear as a pure white hue, tapping his helmet again he deactivated his night vision causing the hallway to appear darkened and empty, faint figures of the walls, debris and the occasional body were barely visible now. He took slow steps as he approached the opening at the end of the hallway, being careful to not step on any of the bodies, he'd hate to have to clean their blood off his armour. Once at the end of the hallway he crouched in the doorway and scanned the room, the roof above had collapsed onto the middle of the floor below, crushing anything below it, light streamed in from the opening giving the metal room a more warm sensation to it. He wasn't fooled, he waited and scanned the room, sections of the walkway had fallen and crumbled, docked ships had been crushed or damaged beyond repair but none of that distracted him from what sat in the middle of the room... or well floated, a Phantom.

It was a surprise to see one of them still in working condition but it was worrisome that that same one was currently floating in the middle of the room below the opening of the hole in the ship's roof. No doubt the Surviving covenant were planning on doing their own reconnaissance, and as much as he should just take the Phantom, he needed to know how many he would be up against and if this lot were the last or first to leave. He crouched down and raised his DMR higher, ready for anything. He stayed low, ducking under any debris and hiding from the most lit parts of the room, He motion tracker 'bleeped' as it picked up movement some 30ft away from him, he peeked around the corner to get a look at his adversaries. Two Elites were moving towards the Phantom dragging one of their weapon crates, while seemingly annoyed that there were no Unggoy to do the job for them, He'd kill them right now but he had little information and if they had anything to say it would help... as much as he hated letting them live, sometimes those kinds of sacrifices were necessary.

He crept closer, being sure not to kick anything that would give him away, whilst simultaneously sticking to the shadows of the room. As he grew closer he picked up the words they were saying, he was glad he used his spare time to learn the Sangheili language as brain hurting as it was, to anyone else it would sound like they spoke in harsh and guttural noises and really that's what their language was, though he understood it as fluently as his first language.

" **Why must we complete the simple tasks? Why not the Unggoy?** " He crept closer, as he got within 10ft of his adversaries, taking a note of how only those two were showing up on his motion tracker.

" **The Unggoy are too incompetent for simple tasks, Shipmaster Vuko wants as many fighters to explore, even if the Unggoy are weak.** " Shipmaster Vuko, so he did get dragged through with the rest of the ship, no doubt the coward had attempted to flee the moment his ship was breached from the inside. He made a mental note of being on the look out for the Elite later but chances were he wouldn't find him soon, It wasn't far-fetched that he would try to claim this planet as his own.

" **He is too obsessed with that artefact of his, how do we know if the relic is even here?** " Ok, that's new, there had never been reports of Vuko having an artefact on his person at any given time and he should know, considering he write most of the reports himself. There was no doubt that the artefact was Forerunner in origin but what it was and what it did were complete mysteries.

" **You forget brother, those who follow Vuko faithfully will be blessed by the gods, we are still alive are we not?** " He'd had enough of ease dropping, he needed direct answers, times, places, everything. Without a second thought, he leapt over the debris he had been hiding behind and made a quick break to the two Elites- they'd never seen him coming -as he drew closer he jumped up and over the closest Elite- with the help of his armours thrusters -and grabbed a hold of its head pulling it down as he descended, The rapid addition of weight and force that was applied to its neck caused it's head to jerk forwards violently, snapping the vertebrae in the neck whilst tearing tendons and muscles, some bones stuck out the back of the Elites neck. He wasted no time as he launched himself forwards and grabbing the stunned Elite by the shoulders and pushing the two of them to the floor, him sat on its abdomen while he pinned its arms above his head. Behind him, the other Elites dead body had fallen face first as its Indigo blood spewed from the new injury.

"Start talking, Where's Vuko?" The Elite struggled against his hold but otherwise didn't try to break out of it. The Elite clicked its mandibles together right in front of his visor in an attempt to intimidate the Spartan, though it seemed thoroughly surprised to see him.

" **You will never find him** **'Chattinai Hunter, he is long gone.** " His grip tightened around His wrists, warning him that he was dealing with someone who could and would kill him.

"I expect as much, he is a coward, after all, tell me how many warriors have left and how many more will follow." Greyson held both of the Elites wrists in his left hand as his right when for his Magnum, showing it to the Elite momentarily.

" **Four Phantoms have left, but they will be long gone by now.** "

"I'm counting on that." Without a second thought, he shoved the barrel of his Magnum into the Elites mouth and pulled the trigger. The echo of the Guns pop was muffled ever so slightly by the Elites head as the bullet went through his mouth, pierced its skull and cerebellum part of the brain, then bounced off the armour it wore doing more damage to other parts of the brain. He knew that was all the Information he was going to get from him, Elites were as stubborn with information as stubborn Spartans were with dying.

You only saw it if you were very, very good at what you do.

As he stood back up he looked up to the light that spilled in from the top of the Hanger, a blue sky hung above it beaming down onto the surface below, there was no doubt in his mind that he was on a life-sustainable planet... he better get ready.

...

He wasn't sure how long he'd been at work but he was certain that anyone else would have collapsed half-way through, he currently sat in the holding bay of the Phantom that he had 'borrowed' from the Covenant. He'd gone back and forth between the hanger bays and collected the crates that had been left behind, but a majority of the time had been spent going through the contents of said crates, from ammo, weapons, medicine, explosive's, and rations he was surprised at how much had been left behind as the rest of Fireteam Horizon evacuated the Civilians. He had enough ammo to hold a highly defendable position for a long time, the freshly made un-fired Sangheili weapons would serve as great Temporary Weapons until they ran out of charge and if he was forced to fight he wouldn't have to clean up shell casing of the bullets he would having to if using a UNSC weapon, If he rationed his MRE's carefully he could easily last a year or two, though he had much fewer Rations out of everything else he had, no doubt Horizon had prioritised food over weapons for the civilians. The explosives he would have to probably seal away until they were needed, and while he already had a large number of guns in the crates he'd also collected ones from the dead, just in case the surviving covenant members came back for them, although it was redundant due to the ships size as hundreds of weapons could be within the remains.

He entered the operator cabin that sat at the front, closing the door after himself, he took a seat in the pilot's seat and looked over the flashing purple and red lights along with the few dials. Most times the type of Phantom could be identified by the control panel, and he knew this one like the back of his hand... A Type 52-Phantom, which were incredibly rare among the covenant and swords of Sangheilios, fitted with custom cloaking technology made this aircraft the perfect one for his purposes. The three other empty seats reminded him that Phantom's usually had a crew of 4 in the operators' cabin but he could pilot it without issue for now.

Satisfied that everything was ready he began to elevate the Phantom upwards into the hole above him, the sides scraped against jagged metal and sticking out infrastructure, Worst cast scenario is that he lost some paint. Once out he looked on at what sat outside the ship, a large lush green forest, filled with trees for miles to see, there were even high hills and the hard to see waterfall... one of the many beauties of nature. He rotated the ship and continued to look around the wreckage of the Faith, he couldn't quite see the ends of the wreckage as blue smoke was emitted from the Plasma flames that stuck to the ship in various places, He'd have to make sure to keep coming back here to ensure the Covenant wouldn't scavenge from it and force them into a situation that wouldn't benefit them.

Scanning the area more he came across the one thing that he hoped he would see... Civilisation, The tall white pristine buildings of a highly structured city sat two Klicks away from the crash site, it didn't look like any sort of City he'd seen before but then again he'd only been on the planets Cygnus and Earth. Not in any of those places were buildings like these, earth was still recovering from the attack done by the Covenant in 2552 and Cygnus was like a younger brother to earth in a way, he began messing with the dials on the ship looking for the communications device that the covenant used, if he could pick up a signal he'd be able to figure out whether it was a human colony or not. If he couldn't find anything then he was sure that it wasn't a planet under the occupation of humanity.

...

...

Nothing, only static, he didn't pick up a single signal. No UNSC radio broadcasts, No Civilian short wave's from handheld devices, No signals of space faring ships... just static. This place didn't have anything in the way of modern day tech that all human colony worlds had, it was like is was... not human.

Perhaps this planet wasn't of human origin? He wasn't too surprised really, the waves used in long distance communication had changed dramatically over the years so if this planet's Sapient Species wasn't in the space-faring age then he wouldn't be able to pick up the high-end waves because they don't exist here. He reached up and flicked on the ships cloaking field leaving the Phantom as nothing more than a slight shimmer in the breeze as he began to make his way towards the city for two reasons, firstly was to scout out the local species and log as much data as possible, secondly, if Vuko was going to go anywhere it'd be in the middle of the city where he'd try to proclaim himself a god to them... It did fit his big-headed attitude nicely. He activated his suits location beacon which silently ticked away in the background, chances were it would take months for a UNSC ship to come retrieve him, so he'd have to get used to seeing the inside of the Phantom for a while. It was going to be a long few months.

* * *

She was a wreck, she looked horrible and probably smelt horrible too. It had been days since her last shower and had put on clean clothes, washed her hair or had a decent meal, Sleep... she also needed sleep, she sighed silently pushing her dirt covered blond hair out of her face and rubbed her eyes from the sleepiness she felt. Some would say she was pushing herself, she'd counter with 'I'm just getting the most mileage out of my body', though now she was regretting not having a nap on the way over.

Angela stood from her seat as she made her way for the door, she'd been called by the government of Germany and asked to come to Stuttgart as soon as possible, they never told her why and when she questioned them their only reply was that they were afraid innocents were going to be hurt. That was five days ago, and since then she had to help the injured people who were suffering in Iraq, teach people how to use her technology for the while at which she would be gone and then get the private plane from Iraq to Stuttgart all the while unable to find out what was happening in Stuttgart that would need her attention but Germany as a whole had stopped all news from spreading outward, that didn't sit well with her.

She tried to look somewhat presentable by attempting to straighten her dirt and blood stained doctors coat and flattening the top of her hair down, the rest was left in a ponytail behind her, which was just as dirty as her clothes. She picked up her suitcases as she went down the ramp and off the Plane, to be greeted by a group from the German army... oh this wasn't a good day. Still, she kept up a smile, despite her rough look and the fact that her escort was a Military team.

"Hallo, wie geht es dir?" She gave a small curt wave as she came closer, Her light Switz accent flowing through the air freely, none of them seemed displeased by her appearance or had expected her to be like that. "Traurig über meinen Blick, bin ich sehr beschäftigt gewesen."

"It's no problem doctor, we did call you during a very inopportune time didn't we." Angela raised an eyebrow at the clear use of English, it wasn't that it was uncommon in Germany, she just hadn't expected it. She stopped just 2ft in front of him before trying to clean up her clothes, she didn't want to wear them but everything was dirty, save for her Valkyrie suit and she really didn't want to walk around in that. The Captain of the team was the one who spoke and every part of him screamed military, his posture, the look in his eyes, and the gun strapped on his back.

"Ok, why don't you tell me what's going on? I'm not working until I know what I was called here for." He motioned her to follow whilst turning away from the group and walked towards their transport Vehicle, which was armoured with 3inch thick steel and had black tinted windows. The hover jets on each corner of the frame stopped the Vehicle from being a large paperweight. "I'd suggest you tell me the reason I have been dragged away from the helpless, otherwise I'll just turn around and go back to them."

No-one seemed fazed by her small threat, not even her, she was a doctor after all and to leave people who could be injured or have been injured would not sit well with her. Perhaps it was the fatigue, perhaps it was her unkempt state but she really wasn't in the mood to play soldier girl.

"Of course Doctor Ziegler, I will tell you... just not in public and not while you look like that." He motioned towards her blood stained clothes, they'd only been stained because she was helping the sick and injured in Iraq. He opened the door to the car and motioned her to enter, and against her better judgment, she did, she'd moved her suitcases so they were lying flat on the floor. The teams' captain sat next to her whilst the other two soldier sat up front driving the vehicle. "Thank you, Now I know that you're confused about everything but the minister of Germany has decided to not let this get outside yet."

She was about to start asking questions when the car lurched forwards and she had to grip onto a railing that was on the ceiling, The captain, on the other hand, didn't seem fazed by the sudden shift in movement and picked up a file that sat in the car. "Here's what I can tell you... A day before we contacted you, so six days ago, we experienced a... how do I put it?... event, that was completely unexpected." He opened the file and began to skip through it, long reports were all written on the pages, from where Angela could see from anyway. He seemed to find the page he wanted and he showed it to her. "We had a UFO crash two klicks outside the city, right on top of the Bastion Graveyard."

She wanted to laugh, snort at the claim of having a UFO crash just outside the city. And she probably would have too, if she didn't look at the picture that was on the page she was being shown. A large purple metal construction laid in a heap, smoke crept out of places and half of it seemed destroyed or damaged in some form. "I... How?" That shouldn't be possible, they had satellites, giant telescopes that stared into space looking for life... and no-one saw it coming?

"It appeared during the pitch black of the night, If people were awake they didn't see it... not till it crashed anyway." There was an uncomfortable silence that followed, Angela couldn't speak, her mind was still processing the information half accepting and half denying the evidence before her. She continued to look at the picture, and the reports around it... they weren't special, just reports from people who may have seen what had happened when it first arrived, the most notable feature was that sounds of explosions could be heard during the middle of the night. "That's not the worst of it, though." She looked up at that, letting every word he would say be caught.

"We spent the entire next day monitoring the thing for activity... nothing. Come nightfall we sent in a team to scout it out, see if whatever's in there is nocturnal, we haven't heard back from them since... their presumed KIA until survivors can be found." He remained silent for a moment as if contemplating what to say next... no doubt he wasn't allowed to say everything.

"So you want me to go in and find them." She waited for his reply, she needed to know more, if those people are... dead, then it was her duty to help find them so they could be buried, or if there was the off chance they were alive then she'd need to bring them back. "Captain..."

"I am not allowed to say anymore, Doctor..." She stopped as she was interrupted. "...The rest will have to be said during the briefing of the team before all of you go out... for now, relax, we've already set up some nice accommodations for you whilst you stay here." She stopped paying attention to the three who were in the same car as her and instead looked out the tinted window as the blurry figures of Humans and Omnics whizzed past. Everything she had been told, albeit how little, was clawing at her brain, she still wasn't sure how real this was... but she couldn't turn away now if the people of Stuttgart were in possible danger, she needed to help. The people of Iraq would be fine for a few days but she would have to get back to them eventually.

Her jaw tightened, while her neck tensed, as she suppressed a Yawn, they better have a coffee machine wherever they were going.

...

After a dreadfully long hour ride they'd finally arrived at the F.O.B outside of Stuttgart, large Tents and Military Vehicles were scattered around the outside acting as a sort of border between the base and the city, even though they were a ten-minute drive away from Stuttgart now. In the middle of the entire area sat the large old concrete building that, she assume, was used during the beginning of the Omnic war well over thirty years ago. Far off behind everything, There was smoke rising in the distance and she could just see the purple mass between the building and an Aircraft.

After she had Exited the car, with her bag in tow, she was guided into the building, which was being used as the command outpost. People and Omnics alike ran around completing orders and keeping the place safe and secure, whilst also gearing up Vehicles. As soon as she entered the sound of construction hit her ears and the stench of sweat and oil pierced her nostrils, she almost stumbled back, almost, A simple scan of the room showed multiple groups of people either training or working. Angela was impressed that within six days the old building had been re-occupied and cleaned... she was sure, somewhere in her mind, that this place hadn't seen activity since the beginning of the Omnic war.

"Sei vorsichtig damit, kleiner Mann!" She looked over to the source of the shouting and was surprised at what she saw, a set of battered Crusaders armour was hanging from chains, some armour plates were off the armour giving way to see the inner mechanism's, hydraulics and servos. The owner of said armour was the one who was shouting at those who were fixing up the armour. To say Angela was surprised was an understatement, she quietly excused herself from her escort for a moment before walking over to the 7ft4, White haired German man, someone who she knew from a long time ago.

"Reinhardt, don't you think it would be nice to lower the volume a little." The man in question stopped criticising the workers before turning towards her, a large smile present on his face, as joy was evident on his features. His left eye had a very thick scar running down from the top of his forehead down to his cheek just above where his facial hair stopped, said eye was hazy and blank indicating that he was blinded in that eye, the wrinkles on his head showed his age better than the head of white hair.

"Angela Was für eine Überraschung, Sie hier zu sehen." Reinhardt's rough aged voice felt like an old speaker being played, yet held a twinge of warmth and elderly wisdom. The giant of a man quickly wrapped his arms around her smaller frame, picking her up with ease as he hugged his ex-co-worker, Completly undeterred by her messy state. As he put her down he took one look at her stained clothes and that large grin dissolved into a small smile as the flecks of blood and patches of dirt became more obvious. "What has happened to you, Angela?"

"Just doing my job as a doctor... how have you been Reinhardt? Keeping well."

"I have never felt better But I don't think the same can be said for you, you look a little rough there Angela, you alright?" She quickly waved off his concern, she knew how to take care of herself and how to amend for any mistakes she had made whilst helping the people of Iraq. She cared about herself- Obviously -She just hadn't had time to look after herself, if she couldn't take care of herself then she couldn't take care of others... and that wouldn't sit with her.

"I'm fine Reinhardt, what're you here doing anyway?" She was only vaguely aware that he hadn't dropped the subject on her health but merely pushed it to the side, He puffed his chest out slightly in a proud boast as his smile grew larger.

"I got called here of course, me and Brigitte were up in Nuuk- Greenland that is -when we... well 'I' was called to come to Stuttgart to come defend it, we had to shorten our stay there to get here but in the end it doesn't matter as we planned on going down to spain afterwards anyway..." Reinhardt stopped for a moment before leaning closer to Angela and speaking in a near whisper "...Brigitte thinks the warmth there would help me keep feeling young."

Angela rose an eyebrow at the use of the name, it wasn't anyone that she had heard of before, certainly wasn't a part of the crusaders- considering Reinhardt is the last - just behind Reinhardt, where the workers were, she heard a muffled voice speak.

"I heard that Crusader." Angela took one look past Reinhardt's shoulder at the group of workers to have a look at the speaker, a youngish woman wearing a welding mask as she blowtorched one of the sections of the Crusader armour to assist in repairing the damaged armour, though now that she had a closer look at it, it didn't seem as damaged now as it had been back when he was forced to retire from Overwatch.

"Oh!, I almost forgot." He wrapped his arm around Angela's shoulders and turned the two of them towards Brigitte. "Brigitte, this is Angela the doctor I told you about, Angela this is Brigitte, my squire in training."

The girl in question stopped her work for a moment before flipping up her welding mask, giving off a gentle wave to the swiss doctor before slamming down the mask and continuing her work.

She was going to ask him before who she was, however, her escort's leader had come up to the two of them. "While I'm all for the reunion, I Think Dr Ziegler here requires some time to rest and prepare, such as yourself Mr Wilhelm, Now If you'll excuse us, I need to show the good doctor to her living quarters."

Reinhardt gave a jolly laugh as he gently patted Angela on the shoulder. "Of course, of course, go ahead. Oh, and just call me Reinhardt, Mr Wilhelm was my father, good man... I miss him." He turned away from the two of them and went back to instructing the workers on how to repair his armour as Angela was moved away from them and guided through the building.

It was only when the sounds of activity had left her ears that she had realised that she had been taken away from the main Hub of the building and into the living quarters. Well 'Living quarters' was a bit of a stretch really, the main quarters was rows and rows of beds all evenly placed between each other with only enough space for one person to stand between them, small metal lockers between them were the soldiers only form of storage for their clothes and personal items. As she was guided through the room she couldn't help but think of Overwatch, they'd used a very similar method of bed formations for the regular soldiers and only given private quarters to the higher up's and important staff members. The old organisation had been shut down for years now, and she hoped it would stay that way.

She'd been guided through the room and into a short corridor with multiple doors, without a word, she was brought to the closest door and ushered in. Inside was a clean room lacking dust, dirt or any form of disorganisation, The single bed in the corner had clean white sheets and a single oak bedstand next to it, the rest of the room had a locker for weapons and showed signs of being emptied recently.

"Doctor." She took one look back at the captain who had brought her here, giving a small nod to confirm she was listening. "I hope this is to your liking, there's a shower in there." He pointed to a single door at the furthest part of the room, where a white door sat unopened. "Briefing is at 1400 hours, it is currently 0730 hours, get yourself a little rest doctor."

She gave him a short wave as he left, shutting the door behind him, leaving her alone in her quarters in a near silent state. She moved her suitcases into the corner of the room with the intent of leaving her stuff packed up until she had to leave, Her eyes wandered to the door which led to the shower, It'd be nice to clean herself up before the briefing... look presentable, she didn't want to know what everyone that saw her was thinking about her right now.

* * *

Brown-golden eyes stared intently at the multiple screens that laid before it, the running footage of one of the most spectacular things the watcher had ever seen. The footage showed a crumbling heap of metal, smoke and bluish-purple flames spanning around 6000ft across the green fields that separated Stuttgart from the ever growing forest, the same area where a large scale Omnic battle had happened over 30 years ago and was now promptly named the Bastion Graveyard, though it was more commonly referred to as 'The Graveyard' due to the number of people that had died there.

Of all the screens, which all showed different angles of the wreck, the watcher paid close attention to the middle one, where he watched the mid-section of the scrap heap which had a gaping hole in the middle of its infrastructure. He watched as something rose from the wreckage, hovering the entire way up with no sort of outside help, the purple machine was curved across the top and possessed no windows or points of access that he could see of. It sat in the air as it stared out at the forest before it, before turning towards- what he assumed -was Stuttgart before staring in that general direction for what seemed like minutes. Then it disappeared, going completely out of sight, It hadn't moved it just... vanished, out of thin air, completely unseeable on any of the footage.

One hair covered hand moved forwards and rewound the footage putting it back to the beginning, the flat clean image of the 'Graveyard' sat there untouched by anything, the darkness of the night clouded all small insignificant activities from the space-scale view of the footage, everything seemed fine with no interruptions or disruptions to anything. Within moments the entire view darkened considerably blocking off the view of the ground and it stayed like that for a few seconds, the darkness seemed to... implode... on itself freeing the view of the ground, where the newfound wreckage was now sat, glowing brightly as flames littered its body.

Whatever it was it wasn't made by humans- that much he was sure of -It was too big to be constructed in secret or even have the funding to do so, it couldn't have been made by the active omniums as they were busy building new Omnics that were slowly starting a second war and driving a wedge between the Human-Omnic relationship that had flourished in some places around the world... for other places it set in the final nail in the coffin with whether they were with or against the Omnics. Just from the size, he could tell that no-one had the time or resources to create such a large structure and keep it maintained.

In his musing, the footage had caught up back to where it was earlier, he watched again as the same thing emerged from the wreck and disappeared again. He leant back slightly in the tire he was sitting in, closing his eyes he began to think of all the possibilities to what this thing was, it showed no signs of having a shape, had nothing that would let it move on its own and hadn't done anything except crash. It had come out of nowhere... literally, and only one thing had come forth from it and even that disappeared without a trace. Whatever it was it wasn't something they had ever even thought about achieving and the requirements to work on such a project was too large for any single company or country to complete on their own, yet there it was.

He huffed as he opened his eyes as he rewound the footage once again, he stared intently at everything as if trying to see something new, as if the video would change into an entire written analysis of everything he wanted to know.

"It's not going to change Winston." The gorilla in question blinked a few times as the voice registered in his head, his eyes snapped around the screens seeing the triangular symbol of ATHENA, the intellectual A.I that resided with him within watchpoint: Gibraltar, he huffed as he reset the footage and slowed it down to its normal speed as opposed to the fast-forwarded footage he had been watching... maybe he was watching it too quickly and couldn't see the details that he needed to. "Please Winston we've been watching this for days both of use know that we've seen everything... we'll have to wait till we get more information."

" **What other information is there ATHENA? There isn't anything, and I'd rather not wait for something bad to happen before learning about this.** " Winston went to work at his computer, trying the look at the massive structure from as many angles and places as he could, there had to be something he missed somewhere, some detail that kept slipping his sight. He wasn't going to ignore a potential threat to humanity, especially when no-one knew what it was, and as far as he was aware Germany was keeping everything quiet from everyone until they understood what sat on their doorstep. The only reason he had access was because of the few satellites that he had sent into space... and the fact that many places didn't know that the old Overwatch bases could access classified information helped.

"It doesn't hurt to learn but staring at the same image over and over again won't teach you more than you already know." Winston huffed as he turned away from the screens, ATHENA was right, you could only learn so much from one thing. Though he wasn't going to abandon the entire situation, he needed information the moment it became available, videos of anything that were out of place... unnatural phenomenon, reports and sightings.

" **Fine but inform me the moment something new comes up**." Winston pulled himself from the tire he had been using as a chair and began to move out of the room. He leant over the railing of the hallway- using the door frame from the control room he just left - and grabbed onto a rope and slowly pulled himself over said railing, his feet connected to the inside of another tire and from there he jumped down onto the floor below him with a highly audible 'Thump'. He looked around the room at, which used to serve as the command post for the once active watchpoint, the large screen to his left displayed the locations of all watchpoints like Gibralter, Grand Mesa and at one point a few years ago it showed Watchpoint Antarctica, he couldn't quite place an exact name on the other Watchpoints as he'd spent most of his time here in Gibralter or out in the field helping those who couldn't help themselves. Just next to it was his blackboard, with most of his 'To Do List' crossed out, the only thing he needed to do was order peanut butter before he ran out... but he wasn't too sure how anyone would even get that here.

He shook his head from the thought before turning to the table behind him, where his unfinished project laid still, His barrier projector project was supposed to be one of his greater achievements... not his best but one of the greater ones, with it, he'd be able to carry a portable, lightweight, self-recharging energy barrier that would completely block bullets, though he was having a little trouble getting it to work properly. It was having the same problem as before where, instead of working as intended, it still 'exploded' and sent everything within the vicinity flying... even him, he wasn't sure if it was the power levels, the emitters or something else but in its current state it was both useful and useless. His hands found his tools once again as he began to work on the device once more, ready to use what time he had to work on the project, even if he really wanted to do more research. He turned to the table where the unfinished model sat- and had been sat for quite some time- the last time he had worked on it was... right before the recall, three weeks ago.

He could still remember that day clearly, failing to complete the barrier projector, seeing the news and almost recalling all remaining overwatch agents to active duty before being infiltrated by Talon... and Reaper. He let out an animalistic growl as he thought of that figure, after months... no, years of seeing report of the dead ex-overwatch agents- whether special or not -he couldn't help but mourn for them from inside Gibralter, the reports of a ghostly figure and a masked assailant only made sense when he saw that figure but even then he couldn't place everything together, there were too many variables to count for when it came to the 'Reaper', if that was his real name.

Since then he'd expected the remaining overwatch agents to greet him in Gibralter, to come back to working for the once great organisation, to right the wrongs of the past and work to de-slander the name 'Overwatch' all the while being the hero's everyone needed. Yet no one has come, no one has responded to him or his message... and that was another weight to his shoulders, he knew he could do only so much for the people of the world but for now he'd have to do things on his own.

 _ZIP_

Well, almost alone.

"Oh, Winston." The thick London Cockney accent of his only companion- other than ATHENA - whispered quietly next to him as she leant ever so slightly onto his side, he was glad he wasn't wearing his armour, otherwise, she would've had to squeeze to be where she was currently... which was under his arm. "I got your favourite." Slowly one of her gloved hands moved within his view as he worked, revealing a jar of peanut butter, he kept his eyes away from it and her... he didn't need a distraction.

"Winston." There was a slight giggle as she waited patiently, or... what was considered patiently for her. "Ok, if you don't want that-" she retracted her arm quickly and Winston gave a silent sigh as the confection was removed from his sight. "-I guess you don't want these either." Winston listen as her steps moved away from him and sounded as though they were leaving, at first he didn't want to know... but in the end, he gave in and looked back at her.

Stood at the doorway, leaning against its frame with one knee bent with her foot to the wall, was Lena Oxton otherwise known as Tracer, She dressed in her usual attire that she seemed really fond of these days. From the orange leggings that covered her legs with her iconic 'Tracer' codename going up the left leg to the open-collared RAF jacket with the sleeves rolled and folded around her elbows, the large- white rimmed -orange goggles matched her leggings in colour. Strapped to her chest sat one of his greatest creations, if not the greatest creation, the glowing spinning light of her chronal accelerator cast the wall next to her in a very faint blue, three armoured strips came off the device going to each of her sides and one went up and connected to harness straps that kept both the front and back pieces on her form. A gauntlet was on each arm and assisted with the purpose of the chronal accelerator, to keep her anchored to this time and keep her from fading away and out of existence.

But none of that interested Winston at the moment, for what was being held in one of her hands between her thumb and forefinger... was his glasses. Slowly he walked towards her, using his hands to balance his walking from the top heavy body he naturally grew, once close enough he slowly pulled the small glasses out of her hand- completely missing the large smile that was present on her face -he observed them in curiosity and disbelieve, turning them around slowly he found they were his glasses. He placed them onto his face- pushing them up the bridge of his nose until they sat comfortably in place -the entire room and Tracer cleared up considerably, he may not have desperately needed them but he preferred to see properly as opposed to having a sight impairment.

" **I... How?** " His glasses had been crushed two and a half weeks ago... by Reaper.

"Oh those, I just got 'em fixed luv... no bid deal." Tracer kept leaning against the wall, her arms now crossed, her smile growing larger as Winston's mood improved drastically. She'd never admit it but since the Museum incident his mood had dampened some and he wasn't acting the same, even if he didn't realise it himself... she was just glad that he was returning to himself again.

Winston didn't say anything, however, he did give her a smile before turning around and went back to tinkering with his barrier projector in an attempt to finish the prototype once and for all. Hopefully, there'd be more news or information by the time he was done or had woken up after he slept- after completing his barrier projector, of course -He'd just needed to be patient... he couldn't risk the people of Stuttgart for answers to questions nobody had.

"Winston, catch." He dropped his tools as he quickly turned and caught what was thrown at him... the jar of peanut butter that Tracer had, had. He spun it around as a smile grew on his face, using his teeth he opened the jar before dipping his finger in to scoop out some of the delicacy, spitting the lid onto the floor he placed his finger in his mouth before eating all the Peanut butter off his finger. Once done he turned back to the table, placed the jar onto the corner and continued to work as if nothing ever happened. "Try to get some sleep big guy... never know when we'll need to get out there again luv."

He was only vaguely aware of Tracer leaving as she zipped out of the room with the use of her chronal accelerator, leaving him- and ATHENA -alone.

* * *

 **A/N: Yay a Second chapter is done, took longer than I want to admit but hey I think its alright. For the sake of not rushing the story, I moved things that I had planned for this chapter and moved them to the next one (Though at the time of writing this I haven't started the next chapter yet)**

 **I will be working on that chapter ASAP but again it will be uploaded once I'M happy with it not on any set day or time. I've had to go back through this chapter a few times to add more (relevant) length to those sections to get the word count up to 10,000 words cause I don't want any short chapters, I've even added small details that I forgot to add in the last chapter.**

 **Also if you notice any mistakes I have made let me know so I can fix it, If you have questions, Suggestions** **or criticism just leave a review or PM me and I'll try to get back to you as soon as, also on that same note if you are to leave a review please do sign in or make yourself an account so I can properly thank you for your contribution to the Fic, I've been made aware of a few mistakes I've made in the first chapter and have fixed them accordingly as I'm uploading this chapter, however, I've been unable to thank them due to them to not having an account or being signed in as they wrote it (You know who you are) It takes five minutes up most and doesn't have any drawback plus you can follow/ favourite this story to know exactly when a new chapter is uploaded/ a chapter is updated.**

 **As a fellow British-man, I KNOW that the way Tracer speaks is NOT how Brits speak... Mostly... but I've done it that way to appeal to the Cockney accent she's supposed to have, also on this note all words are written in the British English spelling as opposed to the American spelling as it sits better with me- the writer -so 'Artefact' is not spelt wrong as it is the English spelling of 'Artifact' which actually looks better but... eh, whatever.**

 **Language translation (So you don't have to):**

"Hallo, wie geht es dir?" = Hello, how are you?

"Traurig über meinen Blick, bin ich sehr beschäftigt gewesen." = "Sorry about my look, I've been very busy."

"Sei vorsichtig damit, kleiner Mann!" = "Be careful, little man!"

"Angela Was für eine Überraschung, Sie hier zu sehen." = "Angela What a surprise to see you here."

 **All flames will be deposited into** **Torbjörn's forge for his scrap. ^-^**


	3. Night Ops and Recon

**A/N I really appreciate the feedback that some of you have given me, you may not realise it but the smallest amounts of feedback are enough for me to know that you are enjoying this story.** **I'm not multilingual so inform me if anything is wrong with the translations.** **I don't own Overwatch or Halo - M for Violence and Gore.**

"Hey"-Speaking

" **Hey** "-Elite/ Winston Speaking

 _"Hey"_ -Speaking through Comms

 _" **Hey** "-_Elite/ Winston Speaking through comms

'Hey'-Thinking

' **Hey** '- Elite/ Winston Thinking

 *** See A/N At The End To See Changes**

* * *

Angela adjusted her Valkyrie suit as she patiently paced around the little room the drop-ship had to offer, she couldn't remember its official name but she didn't care to right now. Her stomach twisted and turned as her hands wrung around her Caduceus Staff, this was probably to most nervous she had ever been- not that anyone could blame her -as of right now: she, Reinhardt, Brigette, and a moderately sized military team from the german defence force were all currently underway towards the ever burning wreckage. She had showered, slept, guzzled down two cups of coffee and she still felt tired- not as much as before but still more than she should -Eventually her body would force her into recovering but until then she was going to offer every service she could into helping everyone, until she left for Iraq again.

Reinhardt stood more to the back watching over everyone as he donned his- newly repaired -crusader armour, minus the helmet for the time being. While Reinhardt looked much older, the armour still looked as new as the first day she had seen the behemoth sized set of armour, she found some comfort in knowing that she'd be behind the big steel wall as opposed to in front of it. Reinhardt's massive Rocket Hammer stood leant up against the wall with the hammer head on the floor and the handle upwards, Though ultimately her nerves were only calmed a little, she wasn't really a fan of all the guns that were around her, she even felt a little disdain towards her Caduceus Blaster which rested peacefully on her right thigh. They were nothing more than machines built for destruction and pain.

They'd all been informed of the mission- if she dares to call it that -that was underway, its was, and still is, a rescue mission for the first squadron that had gone missing those six days ago, but at the same time they were to scout out a portion of the wreckage to determine if it was structurally sound enough for excavating and/or exploration, if there were hostiles then the German army would have to send in a large group to clear the entire place out... if such a thing were possible, that is. There was one more thing but she hadn't been told what it was, just that the others would have to deal with it as they went along, she didn't like it but she was also in no place to argue with anyone.

The drop-ship shook with vigour for a moment making a few stray bullets roll and fall off the table resulting in a low audible ding, most of the passengers looked towards the pilot almost expectantly before the aircraft straightened out and they were back to flying smoothly. No words were exchanged between anyone as everyone expected the Drop-ship to start shaking again, no such thing came.

There was a long silence before anyone moved again, The soldiers all muttered among themselves as they prepared themselves for the upcoming 'exploration' of the wreckage. The one thing that hit her hard was that all of them had to swear to secrecy and not tell anyone of what happens here unless given permission to do so, she stopped strutting around and decided to take a seat next to Reinhardt, the angelic wings on the back of her suit folding to the sides as her back came closer to the wall, her Caduceus staff rested on her lap and she used her free hand to fix her hair slightly. Long gone was the blood and dirt.

"Something on your mind Angela?"

Her eyes shifted from her staff to Reinhardt- who was now kneeling down -The question lingered in her brain for a moment before she registered what she had been asked. "Oh, I'm fine Reinhardt, just a little uneasy about all of this. It just seems so... unreal."

Reinhardt chuckled slightly as his fingers tapped against the knee of his armour. "I know what you mean, Never in all my years did I think this would happen... but we'll get through this just as we did before, back in the old days."

The old days, back when Overwatch was still together when they were the ones to keep the peace... now they were nothing more than Ex-Members of a dead organisation. She'd never admit it but Angela felt as though a portion of the destruction was her fault, she'd seen the growing tension between Strike-commander Morrison and Blackwatch Commander Reyes, she did nothing to try to cool those embers and maybe that was why the entire place had collapsed from within... well you can't change your past mistakes, but you can capitalise on them... but now those two are both dead, and there was nothing she could do to rectify that mistake.

"I hope so Reinhardt... I hope so."

"Don't worry we will, I am watching over you after all." The smirk that quickly grew on his face was enough for Angela to loosen down a bit, even if it was for only a moment.

"I know you are... It's just been a while since I've been in this position, being a part of a team that is."

"It has been a long time... but if you ever feel as though we need to leave or if you want to leave let me know and we'll be out of their faster than I can eat currywurst."

Angela turned away from him to hide the smile that grew on her face from his stupid comparison but on that same note he did enjoy his currywurst, she wrung her hands around her staff slightly as the thought of getting closer to the wreck entered her mind. What would they find? Would it be dangerous? Would it be empty? she didn't know... and she really didn't want to know but... she'd roped herself into this on her own accord so now she'd have to know.

"I meant what I said, Angela." She looked back to Reinhardt- her smile long gone -to see him with a serious face as opposed to one his mood lifting smiles. "If you want or need out then just say... I won't force you to stay there, we can always come back you know... even if you don't accompany us."

"Well I'm here now, I may take you up on that offer if I need to."

"Don't be ashamed to." After speaking his head snapped to the pilot and he interested himself with a different conversation. "Pilot wie lange, bis wir dort ankommen?"

"eine Stunde."

Despite the calm smile on Reinhardt's face, the docile actions of the team and the slight whistle of the wind as the drop-ship flew towards its target. Angela couldn't stop the feeling of weight grow on her chest, the slight disturbance in her mental state and although she couldn't pinpoint the reason as to why... she just knew today was going to go horribly.

...

After a dreadfully long hour the had arrived at the wreckage, the frame of the drop-ship shook as it descended closer to the ground. The soldiers and Reinhardt, who was now sporting his helmet, had all stationed themselves around the door in preparation to when it would open. Brigitte was to stay aboard the drop-ship with the pilot- while she initially argued -she saw the reason to her staying behind for when they would return, even if she didn't like it.  
Angela, on the other hand, had her hands wringing around her Caduceus Staff once more as agitation set in over the thought of finally being underway with everything... she didn't let it show, though, less it lower the teams moral.

As the drop ship came down it kicked up dust and loose dirt that had settled over three centuries blocking the initial view from the windowed door, the drop-ship shook with vigour as it neared the ground before stopping completely as the engine died down. When the door opened the team of soldiers quickly moved out to get a look at the surrounding areas and ensure that it was safe before they moved on. Reinhardt silently picked up his hammer and rested the head onto his right shoulder whilst holding the bottom of the handle in his right hand, the lion carved metal shield generator rested on his left gauntlet around the forearm area, After a moment of waiting he too stepped out to have a look at the area around them.

Angela, however, waited for the dust to settle before heading out, The sunlight blinded her the moment the shadow passed over her face, the wind blew her hair to her right and the small loose bits of clothing fluttered in the current. When her eyes had adjusted to the increase of light she looked around from where she stood on the ramp, the large purple metal of the wreckage laid some 70ft in front of them, jagged metal and loose wiring were scattered everywhere. She couldn't see the end of it from where they were, it looked as though it went on forever, blueish-purple flames licked the massive metal mess all over illuminating it further, if somewhat pathetically. The smoke that arose from the flames followed the wind as it was all pushed to their right, with a moment of courage Angela carefully walked off the ramp that separated the Drop-ship and the ground, being cautious of the little drop off at the end.

Her heeled boots crunched against the long grown grass, the sound letting the other know she had left the drop-ship without having to use words. Reinhardt stood tall and proud at a huge 8ft tall from inside his armour, his hammer still resting on his shoulder as he observed the area before him, no-one could see the look of his face and Angela speculated that he was glad of that no-one could... This was the graveyard to where so many of the men, he had both followed and been followed by, had died. Who knew what kind of effect it would have on him.

From behind her, she heard the door to the drop-ship close, signalling that there was no going back... until it was time to go back. She took slow cautious steps to not trip over any mounds in the dirt or any metal that may have spread from the wreckage or... from a long time ago. Once next to Reinhardt she let out a small cough to grab his attention, problem was Reinhardt had three modes; The jolly father-like happiness, The serious harsh critic, and the tough protective knight of a bygone era and as of now he was in his 'Knight mode' he now had no time for pleasantries or any non-serious/ non-mission related chatter, he'd speak few words outside of orders and as the last crusader alive, he was in charge of this mission.

"Sie, ist es sicher zu gehen?" One of his heavily armoured hands pointed towards the soldiers who all cocked their heads towards him as he talked, some relaxed, others pulled their weapons up.

"Ja, Kreuzritter, es sieht klar aus." The Soldier closest to the wreckage pointed towards what would be their path towards and, hopefully, into the wreckage to find the missing team.

"Gut, los geht's." As Reinhardt began to move forwards the rest of the soldiers formed around him, Reinhardt stood in the middle wielding his rocket hammer in his hands in opposition to any hostility that could potentially be ahead of them. Two soldiers flanked his left and right each, while the last soldier stood next to Angela herself as she stood in the back able to keep an eye on everyone in case her services were needed. In reality, she was here on the odd chance that the previous team would be found alive but that wouldn't stop her from keeping this team alive and as unharmed as possible. Each member of the team sported either a semi-auto or full-auto rifle, with the small pistol on their sides for emergencies, they were not permitted to use anything of higher calibre or anything that could be a detriment to this teams safety or the safety of the team they were sent to rescue.

As they all got closer the wreckage seemed to move closer to them, giving them much less room to manoeuvre around comfortably, though as they grew closer the smoke that rose from every crack and crevice in the framework seemed to partially block out the sunlight, though not by much. Eventually, they all reached the same opening that- supposedly -the previous team had entered from, 'opening' was probably the only way to describe the entrance as it was a literal hole in the metal from where it had been torn apart during it's... Crash? Angela presumed.

Reinhardt began to help the team to enter the wreckage as he used his free hand to act as a step, due to the height at which the hole was from the floor. "Seien Sie vorsichtig." Angela watched as each soldier was boosted up to the entrance before they disappeared into the dark abyss of the wreck, though she could hear their boots clomping around in there. As it came to her turn she gently stepped onto his hand, using his arm and her staff as a stabiliser for her balance, once at the right height, she carefully stepped into the closest, flattest, piece of metal. "Careful Angela, slow small steps now."

She turned towards him with a gentle smile coursing on her lips. "I know Reinhardt, you be careful too alright, no overworking yourself." Her smile faltered slightly when Reinhardt didn't respond and instead slowly lifted his foot onto the metal slab and used his hands to pull on some sticking out struts to bring himself into the opening. So much for her trying to get him out of his 'Knight Mode'. The two of them silently moved from there and into the wreckage, It was considerably warmer inside but that was probably because of the flames that were scattered throughout the room they- and the soldiers -had found themselves in. Aside from the bluish-purple glow of the 'fire' the only light source came from the torches that were attached to the soldier's guns and each of them was slowly trailing their lights around the room to see the destruction. Walkways and walls had all collapsed down, the ceiling seemed to be dipping inwards but other than that it was hard to tell with the lack of a proper light source.

One of the soldiers looked around the room before pulling something from his vest pocket. "Deploy flares." Within a moment he ignited the top of the flare, bathing the area around them in a red hue as the flare burnt before them before it was dropped to the ground between them. The others copied his action and lit one of their flares, however, they threw theirs around the room to light it up for clear vision. Soon, red mixed with the white and bluish-purple of the 'flames' and torches, bathing most of the room in perceivable light. During that time Angela had covered her eyes to not be blinded by the sudden change in brightness, the room could be seen in much greater detail, the walls seemed crushed or stretched as the metal threatened to give way under the impractical pressure from the weight it was holding up or keeping connected to other parts, the floor seemed dented, scratched and scorched beyond what it probably once was and, Angela presumed, that the entire thing had lost its shape during the destruction of it.

"Doktor, was ist das?" Angela felt a hand grasp her shoulder and turn her around slightly, the soldier who did so was pointing over to the far wall where one of the flares had landed and what she saw- and what everyone else was looking at -made the hair on the back of her neck stand on end from underneath the skinsuit that was below the layers of the Valkyrie suit. Slumped up against a barrier was... well she didn't know, without words she slowly stepped closer to it with Reinhardt trailing ever so slightly behind her for protection, the red hue of the flare made it much easier to observe the creature in as much detail that was possible as of right now.

It looked like some kind of reptilian, topping at a huge Height of over 2.5 meters- if she had to guess -the head was longer than humans and curved around the top, the eyes- though closed -were sunk far into the face, the skin was an extremely light grey. The mouth was wide open where four digits that protruded from the sides were opened wide, exposing a tongueless mouth, there were multiple teeth along the upper jaw and more that covered the four digits. The hands contained four digits each, two on the middle and one on each opposing side, the legs seemed to be digitigrade with large two-toed feet but all of that was irrelevant at the moment, as the creature seemed to be wearing pieces of armour which were painted a blue colour and fit around its frame, mostly the legs, chest and head. In the middle of the chest plate, the armour had been torn apart with multiple holes littering around the centre and some of it had even bent upwards, a dried indigo coloured liquid was present around the holes. A frothy liquid was also slowly leaking out of the exposed mouth and the opening on the chest, leaving Angela a little confused, but also mildly curious.

Angela knelt down to get a closer look, immediately her nostrils were assaulted with a horrible stench... but one she recognised, if somewhat regrettably... decay, which also explained the froth. The structure had been destroyed over six days ago and if this creature had died before or during the time of destruction then it had plenty of time to enter putrefaction, the second stage of decay. Somewhat reluctantly, and against the pleas of the others, she wrapped her hand around its wrist, noting the leather like texture of its skin, and pulled, while the entire arm lifted up the muscles didn't contract or extend having entered 'rigor mortis' shortly after death, thus proving further that this thing was going deeper into decay.

She stood up, wiping her hands on her suit with a sheepish but knowing smile. "It's dead, has been for a long time but I've got no idea what this... thing is." She stepped back and allowed everyone else to have a look at it though none of them wanted to get as close as she had.

It was Reinhardt who brought everyone out of their stupor. "If it's dead then be glad that we didn't have to fight it, we need to find the others and get out of here... this place isn't safe."

"There's a lot of ground to cover, should we split up?" The previous leader of the squad Questioned, eyes scanning over the many entrances and exits that split off from the room they were in. Reinhardt seemed to consider his question mulling over the pros and cons of such an action.

"I suppose so, you take three of your men, I'll take the last one and the doctor but meet up back here within an hour exactly, if we're not back by then conduct a quick search but be gone within half an hour, we'll do the same understood?"

Each soldier gave a salute in confirmation before splitting off into the designated teams, Reinhardt, Angela and the german soldier all split off towards the closest door and travelled down the tattered and destroyed hallway. To Angela's surprise, Reinhardt had plenty of room to move around and even swing his hammer if need be, the... thing... from before was certainly smaller than Reinhardt, so what was so big that it needed this much room to move? And this place is destroyed, that thought alone sent a shiver down her spine.

The trio didn't make any noise, aside from their footsteps, as they listened out for any signs of activity and looked for signs that the previous team had gone through the area. Their sole purpose here was to find those who had gone missing and determine their fate so others may know, still, something about the silence was unnerving and made their stomachs twist and turn. On the way, the trio had encountered more of the creature from before except these ones were accompanied by smaller ones that were clearly of a different species to the first, these ones were shorter, with stubby legs, flat three-toed feet, with another toe on the back. The most notable feature was the large apparatus strapped to the back of the creature which ultimately leads to a small tube that was attached to the face mask which covered the area above its mouth, It had a set of small sharp teeth within its maw- from what Angela could see anyway -and its forearms seemed comparatively large to its upper arms and legs.

Ten minutes further down, Angela had noticed that the small ones easily outnumbered the big one by at least five-to-one, leaving many questions to circle around her mind but the further they travelled the less the questions were answered. The 'fire' that was dotted around certain breaks in the structure were causing the entire place to warm up to nearly unbearable temperatures and the smell of rot and decay was growing even worse as they travelled and discovered more bodies of these strange creatures.

Eventually, the Trio entered a somewhat intact room that had little light pour into it by a crack in the side. The room itself was slanted towards their left as the floor was detached from the rest of its structure, unfortunately, it was too steep for Reinhardt to continue otherwise he would slide down to the bottom and be stuck there.

"You two go ahead, I'll find some way around." Angela and the soldier looked at Reinhardt-like he was crazy, the very idea of not being protected by him was absurd and completely unwanted. If the slight look of panic on a seasoned soldier was anything go off on, before either could argue he continued. "I'll find my way up to there..." he armoured hand pointed towards the intact upper walkway. "...and find some way down to you from there, It'll be quicker for you two to go straight across as we don't have a lot of time." And with that, he turned back around before he could hear any arguments or counter proposals. Angela and the Soldier took one look at each other the same thought coming to mind.

The Soldier took the lead, being the one that was armed and willing to use a weapon, His foot was placed onto the slanted floor as he attempted to stabilise himself without falling. After a while, he managed to find balance by leaning on one leg, extending the other as far as possible onto the lower slanted floor and using his arms to keep his top half from falling forwards and bringing him with it. Each step was meet with a pause, Listening for sounds not made by either of them, then moving when certain that he wouldn't fall, This continued till he reached halfway and decided to forego the pauses, hands reaching out and grasping onto any non-sharp debris within reach. Once at the other end, he pulled himself up onto the level floor and looked back over to the other side, Where the good Doctor was still standing.

"Come on, Doctor, It's safe... Sort of." He waved his hands in a 'Come over' fashion before turning around to ensure the area behind him was secure.

From the other side of the room, Angela looked between where she was, where her only form of protection was and the distance that was necessary to cover to stay close to her escort. It would take far too long for her to walk... well shuffle that distance and they were already on a tight time limit as it was and her heels would make walking on a slanted slope impossible, though she wasn't stuck. She tightened her grip around her staff in preparation and took a moment to wet her suddenly dry mouth, With all the courage she could muster she ran for the edge of the straight platform, leaping off at the last second and activating her suits propulsion thrusters that were embedded within the angelic-like wings on her back. The forwards force sent her flying across the destroyed floor, her feet never coming into contact with anything as she carefully manoeuvred her feet free from harm, as she came within an arm's length distance of the platform she reached forwards grabbing hold of the edge as her torso collided with the bent and torn metal with a lowly audible grunt.

As she slowly pulled herself up she felt two hands grab a hold of her arms and lift her up with a small amount of effort. Once she was securely on her feet, she looked around the newer surroundings for any signs that the previous team had been here but aside from the obvious destruction, nothing stood out of the ordinary... or what would be considered ordinary for an alien spacecraft. The only difference between here and the other side of the room was... well they were on the other side of the room now.

The duo quickly turned away from the room and headed into the closest entryway and began to make ground throughout the complex maze-like structure, Angela kept a note of all turns, stops and decisions in case they needed to turn back.

"You think we'll find them, Doctor?" The sudden noise within the near silent environment caused Angela to flinch involuntarily as her eyes flickered to her protector, a look of sincere apology on his face.

On one hand, she wanted to say yes, that they'd find the last team and just escort them out, tend to a few injuries then go back to the base but her more logical side argued that the old team was long dead, having gone days without proper food or water, even they didn't have anything to last them a day let alone the six days that the previous team had gone through. Not to mention the threats of being within a collapsing structure, that was, gradually growing hotter which, in itself, would bring on dehydration faster and ultimately death, then there was the threat of tripping off anything within the place that could pose a threat to them and the species' that had come with the wreckage. Chances of survivability were extremely low and if anyone was alive then they may have befallen to... unsavoury methods to survive.

"I'm... unsure, maybe and for the sake of their families I hope so."

The soldier nodded, willing to accept that answer even if the question wasn't fully answered. Angela took note of his expression, worried, stressed and a little bit sad, even though he remained fully alert and kept shifting his eyes to every new object that came into view, Angela couldn't shake off the fact that he didn't look like he was here to do what they agreed on.

"So... Why'd you agree to come along? If I may ask?"

The duo stepped over a split in the floor and into another room, Angela secretly worried that Reinhardt may not find them anytime soon.

"Well... my uh... brother was a part of the last team, I wanted to find him and bring him home." Angela did her best to keep her face neutral, it mustn't have been easy for him to be here knowing that there was a possibility that his brother was dead... and that he could follow suit. Now she wished she sounded more confident and said something more promising that would've uplifted to him to keep him motivated throughout the rest of this mission. Still, his goal was noble and still coincided with the mission at hand.

"We'll find them... I promise." He tried to put up an appreciative smile but kept his focus ahead of them, silently saying that the should be quiet as opposed to loud and exposing their position... even if they both wanted Reinhardt back by their side. Everywhere they went it seemed as though everything was the same, same bodies, same- what they presumed were -weapons lying around, same coloured walls that stood tall on the edges of the rooms and hallways and she didn't like that at all. The only way for them to know the rooms were different was to take note of the differences in damages and what was closed to the door.

Eventually, the duo made it to a- mostly -empty room the centre area was clear of rubble and mess, no bodies, no mess, nothing... just emptiness. The stench of decay had grown pungent and unbearable, Angela felt a bit of bile creep up her throat for a moment before she quickly swallowed it back down- Audibly too. The soldier look at her as though he was saying 'You too?' before moving around to get a look around the room to ensure it was safe, there was no resting in unfamiliar territories. The soldier pulled up his sleeve and looked at his watch... a surprising amount of time had passed from when they had first split apart into separate groups, soon they would have to turn back so no-one would have to look for them and so they wouldn't be left behind.

 ***Clunk***

Their reactions were instant, the soldier clamped his mouth shut and flicked the safety off his weapon, scanning the room with it held up high enough to have proper aim, Angela, on the other hand, had tensed up, her hands clamped tighter around her Caduceus Staff as her back straightened out. Her suit, having detected the shift in heartbeat and action, flared the wings out causing the golden glow to spread across the floor beneath her, her fingers grazed over the activation button on the staff unsure to whether she should prematurely heal the soldier or not.

From somewhere within the room, something scurried around... used every bit of cover that it had to its advantage. Its footsteps were light, fast and impossible to track the duo had already scanned the entirety of the room looking for the perpetrator but came up unsuccessful, it seemed too fast to be one entity yet the sound only came from one spot at a time. They waited for the next set of sound to emerge and once it did the soldier fired his rifle into a gap between two pieces of debris that sat on the outskirts of the room, as anticipated a shadow had gone between the two spots of cover before jumping backwards once it hit halfway and almost into the line of fire. Whatever it was, it was trapped in its current place behind a plating of metal that had more than likely fallen from the ceiling.

The two looked towards each other, silently questioning what to do... not like they could simply arrest it. There was a sudden silence that overcame the room as everything sat still the only sounds being their breath, light and quick but as Angela listened closely she could hear a third breath, her times having to listen to countless breaths of countless patients only helped in this situation. The third breath sounded quick, shallow and with each intake of air it sounded as though something was hissing or growling, if only lightly. Then it stopped and silence overtook the room, their ears strained to hear sounds of movement, signs that their 'Friend' was doing something... anything.

The soldier motioned her towards him as he took a sidestep right to get closer to her, slowly- with guns raised- the two moved towards the point at which the thing had been last, taking slow and silent steps closer towards the crumpled bit of metal. Once within close proximity, the two pressed their backs to the metal or, in Angela's case, as close to it as possible, as quietly as he could, the soldier pulled the clip out from the bottom of his gun to determine just how many bullets he had left before putting it back. He balled his right hand and held it up for Angela to see, then flexed three fingers to indicate to her when they would turn.

All three fingers stayed up and Angela prepared herself to move.

The first finger fell and her hands wrung around her staff in anticipation.

The second finger fell and Angela couldn't shake off the gut wrenching feeling she had.

His hand balled back into a fist before quickly moving to hold the handle, and trigger, of his gun again before the two of them simultaneously rounded the corner gun raised and ready to shoot at...

...

...nothing.

There was nothing here, the area behind the rubble was clear, no signs of anything having been here and that deeply worried them. Sounds aren't made from nothing and it would take a solid entity to create a shadow and right now... there was nothing. The soldiers' torch shined against everything that had been hidden behind the rubble, light occasionally bounced off the exposed metal and yet nothing new showed up, that was until it landed onto the half destroyed doorway, where a considerably large red splodge was on the floor.

Had they hit it? Was that it's blood? Liquid that had been going through tubes in the walls? They didn't know but they needed to. Slowly the duo moved towards the doorway, eyes scanning everywhere in case that thing was still about. Angela knelt down to it and ran one of her gloved hands over the splodge, it felt crusty and rough like it had been dry for a long time, it was slightly lumpy too, she scrapped a little off the floor and watched as it crumbled... blood coagulated too.

"Blood, someone was here and they got injured too, I don't think it's 'theirs' those big ones had purplish blood not red blood... and look." Her hand pointed down the hallway, the soldiers' torch following, where a trail of dried blood was as if someone had been dragged... no, there was no doubt that someone had been dragged the big question was by who? A member of the previous team or one of these things?

"You think they came through here? I mean we've been following a pretty straightforward path, most of the rooms are either blocked off or go nowhere... but here."

"That's what I'm thinking." Angela didn't need to say more if they believed that the people were close then she would take the chance to find them, even if the blood indicated that they may not have survived. Keeping in mind that something may be watching them they pressed on down the hallway, eyes peeled for signs of the previous team or... unwanted visitors, needless to say the signs came quickly, the smell of rot and death grew with each step, more blood was splattered against the floor and walls which mixed in with the bright purple liquid that had been found all over the place, and halfway down the hallway there were bullet casing from fired shots along with bullet holes in the walls and floor.

If either of them had any hope that the last team was alive then it was extinguished once they entered the next room, laying in the middle of the room was the bodies of the team that they had been sent to find, clothes and armour all torn off, guns piled in a corner, blood marks coming from the hallway to where they are now but what was most disturbing about them was the state of damage they were in.

Their arms were torn, ripped and bloody as if the skin had been forcefully pulled off, exposing the rotting muscle and blood covered bone, their faces twisted into a state of agony and pain, burns littered their bodies along with the occasional small hole, theirs chests had multiple gashes and bite marks along them and their necks were torn exposing the arteries and vocal cords.

All of that, however, paled in comparison to what was going on in the room and in front of their very eyes. Right on the other side of the bodies was a large... what look like a mix of a Reptilian and an Avian creature... its legs where reverse jointed feathers stuck out from the back of its head and elbows, One of its three digited clawed hands moved up from whatever it was doing and moved into their line of sight, blood coaxed it's 'hand' before it quickly thrust its hand downwards and sick tearing sound was heard as the hand came back into view with a chunk of flesh hanging from its digits, Quickly after its head descended down into the area in which the flesh had come from and sounds of eating could be heard from it.

Angela was extremely glad that its back was to them otherwise she feared that they may be suffering the same fate as these poor souls, her throat coiled and tensed as her body attempted to force her to upchuck and empty the contents of her last meal onto the floor. Her body staggered backwards from the strong scent of decay and iron and her face lost all complexity as it turned a few shades whiter than normal and she made one of her worst mistakes.

The heel of her boots clomped loudly on the floor as she staggered out of the room causing the sound to reverb around the empty corridor and rooms reaching the ears of the creature and causing it to stop mid-feast.

Its head lifted and turned towards them, exposing a blood covered muzzle-like sharp beak, from where its beak was open slightly she could see the row of razor-sharp teeth which had chunks of flesh stuck between some of them. It's bead-like eyes settled on the two of them as if sizing them up an intense look of hunger protruded through its eyes, its tongue grazed across its teeth as it licked up some of the blood and flesh that had remained. It stood up from what it was doing, amassing at a tall, if roughly guessed, 6ft, at a minimum. Without any warning it jolted forwards, its jaws opening as it let loose a feral sounding screech as its arms ever so slightly jittered from its sides.

The sound jolted the two of them out of their stupors as their survival instincts kicked in, The soldier quickly aimed his gun and fired towards the creature but it proved too fast as it quickly ducked and weaved around the room, though it was pushed back a bit from the fire at which it was against. Angela snapped her eyes to the hallway fearing that more would come along during their little skirmish, though it didn't seem unlikely. Her eyes snapped back to the room she had left to bear witness to one of the most gruesome sights she would probably ever see, through the midst of the fight the creature had climbed onto the wall and dodged each spray of bullets from the soldier who was accompanying her, she only knew 'what' it was waiting for before it was too late, when the soldier went to reload was when it acted.

It launched itself from its spot on the wall and landed directly onto the soldier abdomen, claws swiping the weapon away effortlessly before digging its claws beneath his armour drawing a large surplus of blood from the wound. Before Angela could attempt to do anything it clamped its jaws around the soldier's neck and thrashed wildly, tears and rips sounded throughout the hallway as the fresh scent of iron protruded in the air and a pool of blood seeped out between the injury and the things maw.

Dead... he was dead, his body was now limp and lifeless as he refused to fight back, and now she was all alone... her blood pumped faster as the adrenaline kicked in and the need to stay alive intensified. Her feet backtracked as she slowly moved away from the gruelling scene before her, she wouldn't sleep tonight... nor tomorrow... or anytime soon for a matter of fact.

But this answered a lot, where the last team was, why they hadn't returned, if these's things were hostile or not... but now she needed to leave... find Reinhardt and out of here before.

 ***Ding* *Ding* *Ding***

She mentally cursed at herself as a single bullet casing went rolling across the floor and hit everything within its path to create the most noise possible. She didn't stop to wait and see what would happen she just turned and ran not caring about being quiet anymore, from behind her she could hear the loud thuds as the thing chased her, just staying behind but never losing ground on her. She re-entered the 'Clear room' before attempting to turn and leave the way she had come in. Only to feel a large object tackle her side and force the two of them to roll around on the floor, disoriented and dazed Angela could hardly make out what was happening but her instincts told her to raise her Caduceus Staff upwards.

As she did so she felt a strong force collide with the handle of her staff as something struggled against it, as her eyes cleared she saw the creature mere inches away from her face, fresh blood oozing from its maw and falling onto her Valkyrie suit, staining it with the blood of someone she had hardly known for less than an hour. They seemed to come to a stalemate as the thing... which looked extremely feral at this state... couldn't find some way around the hold in which she had on it, even if she was just simply holding it up with what strength she had. The scent of iron was the only thing she could smell and sounds of her struggling were the only thing she could hear so it came as an utter surprise when she heard something she recognised.

"Angela! I am coming! hold on Freund!" She hadn't heard his advancing steps but she was glad to know he was close by... she didn't want to be here anymore.

She watched as the thing above her quickly snapped its head up to look towards where the voice had come from, only to receive a large metal hammer to the face swung at such a force it practically swatted it off of Angela in a bone-breaking hit that sent it flying across the room where it proceeded to lay still. Silence passed for a moment before she looked up towards Reinhardt, she couldn't tell what face she was making she didn't have the mental capacity to think right now.

"Come on Honig, let's get out of here." Angela could only nod slowly as she was brought back to her feet... she definitely wasn't coming back here... hopefully.

* * *

The lights across the dashboard all flashed between light and dark purple as the Phantom hovered around in the air some few hundred feet from the surface. Greyson sat in the pilot's seat of his Phantom, eyes scanning the city below him endured he wasn't going to crash anytime soon he let the Phantom fly itself for a moment, even if 'Flying' was it slowly moving forwards.

He tapped the side of his helmet as his personal video recording system came online... he hated making these for HIGHCOM.

"Log No.7 Attempt 19."

"Day six, coming onto seven, of the discovery of an unknown 'Inhabited' world. Through observations, I have determined the stage at which this planet sits in. This... world is inhabited by Homo sapiens... Humans, however, this planet lacks technology which is commonplace in all Human colonies suggesting that this planet has lesser technology than even the most basic human worlds. They show no signs of being close to the average Tier 3/ Tier 2 stage of human civilisation and due to a lack of evidence proving otherwise I have placed them as a Tier 5 civilisation until proven otherwise. On the contrary to my previous statement- Much to my dismay -they show signs of slightly advanced technology, even if they're to not advance this planet closer towards achieving a tier 4 technological standing."

"Prior to the arrival of the reconnection of Faith, they had already achieved the ability to create and power hovering cars... using a similar if not identical system to that of Sangheili vehicles like the Ghosts and Wraiths, their cars never leave the ground and as of such 'Flying cars' can be routed out. I am unsure as to what advancements would be made as they begin to experiment with the remains of the Faith But as a safety precaution against the surviving covenant and to the inhabitants of this world i have wiped, whatever remained, of the Faiths terminals clean, moving it onto a personal Holo-pad that I acquired from a deceased Sanghelie... Please relisten to Log No.3 for details on that."

"From my advantages point above the city, I have managed to observe the local populace to see if they differentiate from common lifestyles of human colonies... they do not, however, they show one sign of being within the Tier 1 stage... Fully sentient A.I's, walking among the human population are... humanoid robots, unlike anything the UNSC has ever seen, they like people, interact with people and work a surprisingly large variety of jobs which in itself suggests that they are treated as people as opposed to as servants or slaves... I cannot fully say how good their A.I's are unless I engage in full dialect with one, which would violate the rules when discovering a new Sentient Species... even if they are Human."

"Aside from this there has been negative activity from the covenant... which given the ownership of the planet is surprising, though I am questioning if I had been lied to from the start but nonetheless I will keep a Vigilant eye out for them."

"As per usual a recap and update on the Supplies I have acquired from the Faith's wreckage and of the crates left behind: One MA5D Assault Rifle plus six dozen clips, Two M20 SMG's plus 12 dozen clips, A dozen M9 Fragmentation Grenades, Minimum of four dozen clips for my SRS99-S5 AM sniper rifle, Five dozen clips for my MG6 Magnum, six dozen clips for my M395 DMR, Half a dozen cans of C-7 foaming spray, and to top all the weapons off a single M57 Pilum Rocket launcher with four spare magazines topping at a max of ten shots... don't understand why Dawson preferred the older M41 SPNKR Rocket launcher but I suppose it doesn't matter now."

"I have a minimum of a years supply of MRE's to last until the UNSC come to extract me from my current location, Two full cans of Bio-Foam and an Emergency Medical Packet should I become Injured... unlikely and A medical Scanner. None of the medical supplies should be used by myself and I do have intentions with helping the local population but only if they are under threat of the Covenant... or if I can stop something bad from happening, you know me HIGHCOM."

"Log No.7 End."

Greyson Sighed deeply after finishing his latest Entry Log, they were annoying and, in his mind, unnecessary as his armour was always recording everything, so there was no hiding from your actions as a Spartan. Maybe all Spartans were required to do it so they wouldn't go Insane, so they had something to look back on to ensure they were not going crazy... or maybe HIGHCOM and ONI had some seriously tight rules about encountering an undiscovered inhabited planet.

After re-adjusting the Phantom so it wouldn't go too close to any of the buildings he sat back a bit, enjoying whatever form of relaxation he had at the moment while he waited for the covenant to reveal themselves... chances were they were still licking their wounds till they were ready to show themselves and that was one of the things he hated about them... the shipmaster, Vuko, especially as the shipmaster was really good at hiding. Like the coward he was.

His eyes snapped towards the setting sun watching as the sky darkened and the streetlamps below began to slowly turn on... the populace all left the dark cold embrace that was nightfall for the warmer, brighter rooms of their homes and accommodations. It was times like this that the worst would come out, thugs, murderers... The covenant, It's why he hadn't slept yet, why he monitored every known Covenant communication frequency for chatter, why he moved around more at night in his phantom.

It wasn't his job to prevent crime, far from it, technically he'd be committing crimes... if their crimes are similar to that of the Human Inner and outer colonies. It was his job and mission to eliminate the Covenant at almost any means necessary, so sneaking around the city under the cover of darkness was technically allowed. But he had to ensure that he wouldn't get seen or disrupt anything within the city, to make sure he could complete his mission with minimal detection.

Tonight he planned on doing a bit of recon on foot, get to see the place with his own two eyes as opposed through the Phantoms optics, he could also get a look at the vehicles to see how similar they were to that of the Ghost's and Wraith's propulsion Tech. Though he had to wait till the sky grew darker before he could safely move around undetected... or what counted as undetected when in a several hundred kilogramme suit of armour, In the meantime he decided to prepare himself for his upcoming Recon.

Exiting The cockpit he overlooked all the crates that had requisitioned before departing, all neatly organised with weapons at the back and Medical/MRE supplies at the front. Without thinking he flipped open one of the containers and pulled out the first MRE his hand came into contact with before swiftly going back into the cockpit before anything bad could happen. Once inside he flicked the MRE packet onto an empty part of the dashboard before reseating himself, His hands rose to the sides of his helmet, grabbing onto the rim above his visor, his helmet gave a hiss as it depolarised and depressurized the air around his face. Once free from the rest of the suit, Greyson placed the helmet onto a blank part of dash, the Blue slit-like visor stared back at him blankly a large scratch sat above the visor revealing the grey metal alloy beneath the paint, no doubt all of his armour sat in a similar state. Ignoring the damaged he swiped his MRE from the dashboard before roughly ripping the packaging open, it was just like any other MRE... disgusting and overrated: Beef jerky, A Protein Bar, Instant coffee, A small Chocolate bar and... 'Nutritional supplements' but it would keep him alive for the time being his only saving grace with the MRE's was knowing that not every MRE packet had the same thing in it.

He leant his head back slightly as he ate his protein bar, savouring the honey hazelnut flavouring of the bar. This was his only form of relaxation and he was going to relish in these few short moments for as long as he could before he had to keep an eye on the city below. His eyes snapped to a single vehicle as it drove down the road at a slowish rate, he watched it turn away and determined that it wasn't important, the only thing that was important was finding the Covenant... and removing them completely before they could do harm.

He knew what they were capable of doing, the minimalistic amount of resources would only push them to act faster, the Gunts and Jackals would stray from the shipmasters group to kill for food as both of those species could and would attempt to eat human flesh in times of desperate need or starvation, something the Elites would never do... even if that was because they couldn't eat human meat without falling ill.

It was only a matter of time till they showed themselves, whether it be a single rogue Grunt or Jackal gone scavaging or be the entire group enacting the Shipmasters plans, either way he had to keep his eyes open for them... they couldn't have left this city, they wouldn't have.

* * *

 **A/N: Finally, It's done... One month, it took one damn month, aw well, I would have had it done two weeks ago but I ran into a few problems. Firstly My internet completely crashed and took over a week to get fixed, it even stopped me from saving the work I had made before it went off so I had lost some progress during that time, With Christmas around the corner I've been busy with that so that's taken more time from me, and as of today (and yesterday) I fell ill and could hardly find motivation to finish this chapter but I pushed through and finished it off so I can start the next chapter when I feel refreshed and renewed... I'll see about getting the next chapter to you just before and/or on Christmas but I can't promise anything.**

 **Translations:**

"Pilot wie lange, bis wir dort ankommen?" = "Pilot how long until we get there?"

"eine Stunde." = "one hour."

"Sie, ist es sicher zu gehen?" = "You, is it safe to go?"

"Ja, Kreuzritter, es sieht klar aus." = "Yes, Crusader, it looks clear."

"Gut, los geht's." = "Good, let's go."

"Seien Sie vorsichtig." = "Be careful."

"Doktor, was ist das?" = "Doctor, what is that?"

 **Update:**

 **Changed Reinhardt's armour height from 11ft to 8ft**

 **Changed the end of the chapter and made it better than it was.**

 ***See's comment that states Reinhardt is 8ft tall, not 11ft. *Doesn't believe it. *See's artwork and comparisons of Reinhardt to other characters... "Ok... he's 8ft tall now."**

 **Still, Reinhardt just seems so much taller than that both in the game and in 'The last Bastion' short (I know that was Balderich) I guess the armour makes him thicker as opposed to taller, I mean he's what... 8inchs taller than a Spartan... *Sighs... still its not going to effect this Fic in any negative way.**

 **Thanks to the Guest reviewer who pointed it out.**

 **And to the guest Reviewer who wrote in Spanish... (Who's review didn't get published publicly) this story will go as slow as I want it too. I cannot tolerate stories where the character development happens in ONE chapter or if the 'Plot twist' is revealed immediately... I don't know what you're waiting for but It will come when 'I' want it too... and one more thing, as inaccurate as Google translate can be it did help me read what you wrote so don't try to use alternate languages to have a jab at me about the story being 'Too slow' or anything as I will read it.**

 **If anyone is wondering why I placed this story under the Angst catagory... it will be revealed.**


	4. On Hiatus

I'm sorry for all who have been patient with this story for your patience has not been rewarded. After much consideration since the last chapter, I've come to a conclusion I CAN'T keep writing this story, not because I've lost the will to (Well I have a little) but because this story is... loose. I've got a poorly written story that has no rough drafts or pre-planned events, I'm pretty much writing the plot as I write each chapter whilst working off whatever half-thought ideas that come to mind.

On top of it all the constantly changing lore of Overwatch, Orisa, Doomfist, PTR changes, The uprising Lore and more, it just becomes a little too much to intertwine into my story. Now I do love the concept that I was going for and want to continue it but overwatch is currently subject to changes within its lore and timeline and because of this trying to write a lore accurate story with overwatch is like trying to hold water in a cardboard box.

This and my home life has increased dramatically since my last update, though I do get some time to do what I want, what I want isn't 'Productive' as others say.

Ultimately, what I'm trying to say is I have time to work on A story but I want that stories lore to either be really 'Set in Stone' and unchangeable or extremely flexible and forgiving if the 'Canon' is changed. So for the meantime, this story will go on hiatus until Overwatch can hit a more... Stable position with its lore. Perhaps when I come back to it I can completely rewrite into something better.


End file.
